Hawkgirl: Year One
by Jupitus Garth
Summary: Set in the Timmverse/DCAU. This story will take us from Shayera's final months before Earth and her first year there. Join her on her adventures as she makes new friends and dangerous enemies as she becomes the hero known as "Hawkgirl"
1. HG:Y1:E01:Ch01

****A/N Hi everyone. First of all, some of you that are reading this will know that I've written (partly written) a Hawkgirl story before. Ultimately I wasn't happy with it so I've started again.****

 ** **Also, from the cover art, you'll notice that I have given Shayera a slightly different outfit than the one she had in Justice League. Mainly because her outfit in JL looks a little cobbled together (In my opinion, even though it does use her colours) so I felt that maybe she started out with something different, something more uniform. I always figured the shiny bit on Shayera's cowl/helm was armoured, so I gave her the same for her torso, though keeping it light and keeping her arms free so she can still swing her mace easily. Also, The chest armour and overall colour scheme is based on her outfit from another show. (guess which one)****

 ** **(Though in this first Episode she is mostly in her military uniform seen in "Starcrossed")****

 ** **Anyway, I don't want to ramble, though I do want to explain how this fic will go. I'm going to attempt to emulate a structure of a TV show. There will be "Episodes" that are a few chapters long and each will be self-contained, though will have an overall continuity. This will also be a side-project and will be infrequently updated with new "episodes".****

 ** **That's enough of my spiel. Time to get on with the story.****

 ** **Please note, I do not own anything in the DCU or DCAU. They belong to DC comics and WB respectively. This is written for the love of the universe which was created.****

* * *

 **Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter One**

The ship rocked from another salvo of enemy fire. The sounds of internal explosions rumbled through the deck, indicating that the hull had indeed been breached. Possibly in more than one place.

Lieutenant Shayera Hol tried not to think about the fact that their ship was coming apart around them. She simply kept firing on the Gordanian ships, hoping to destroy them before they themselves were destroyed.

Her fears grew as she saw yet another of their support ship ignite in a fiery inferno. She glanced up at her commander and her love, Hro Talak. "The _Avenger_ has been destroyed," she reported, her voice becoming strained from the stress.

"I know," he said back, fury in his voice. "Keep firing. I want the Gordo's sucking space!"

"Yes, Sir," she acknowledged, even though she hadn't stopped shooting at the enemy since the battle had begun.

To be perfectly honest with herself, she had been quite surprised at how well they had fared. When the ten Gordanian ships had dropped out of hyperspace and engaged their small group of three, the battle had quickly turned against them with the destruction of the _Defiance_. But the two remaining ships had managed to hold their own, thinning out the Gordanian ships from ten to three.

But with the _Avenger_ now gone and their own ship the _Integrity_ , being blown to pieces around them, things were not looking hopeful.

The voice of the communications officer, Konar Tyrn was barely audible to her as more explosions rumbled through the ship. "The _Avenger_ managed to get some life pods free before it was destroyed, but the Gordo's are destroying them."

Hro slammed his fist down hard on the side of his chair, putting a huge dent in the armrest.

"Hol!" Hro shouted. "Destroy those ships. We cannot let them kill any more of our brethren."

Shayera gritted her teeth. She was already doing everything she could. This wasn't even the station she was trained to use. She had been called up here after the tactical officer had been seriously injured not five minutes ago and his relief was nowhere to be found and had been most likely spaced during the initial attack.

Normally, she was in charge of the air squadrons here on the ship, which had been her role for the last few years. Before that she had been an espionage agent, finding her way into enemy territory and relaying information back.

That had changed when she had caught Hro's eye nearly four years ago now. She had narrowly escaped being captured by the Gordanians and had fled back into Thanagarian space, her ship heavily damaged. Hro had picked her up in the _Integrity_ and he had just recently lost most of his air squadron. He requested her re-assignment to this ship and the rest was history.

The overhead lights flickered on and off as more internal explosions cascaded throughout the ship.

They wouldn't last much longer, that much was obvious. The surprise attack and number of enemy ships had simply overwhelmed them, it was that simple.

Shayera stifled a gasp as her console turned a sea of red, indicating that their weapons were all but gone. "I've lost energy weapons," she reported. "I can only fire missiles."

"Dammit!" he yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"Sir," Konar shouted.

Hro turned to him, staring daggers. "What!" he shouted in fury.

"I have word from the cruiser _Garrison._ They received our distress signal."

"How many ships and how long?"

"Four ships, ETA is forty-five minutes."

Hro moved and sat back down in the centre chair. He looked up as the lights flickered again after more strikes from enemy fire. "Too long," he said with a tired sigh. "We need to do something, or we're dead."

Shayera was slightly taken aback by Hro's sudden change in demeanour. It was as if he had given up.

Was this really it? Was this the end?

No, Shayera wasn't one to give in, not now, not ever. She would keep fighting until her last breath, until she wasn't able to fight any longer. She increased fire rate of their missiles, aiming at the engines of the closest Gordanian ship. If she could disable them, then it would become a far easier target to deal with.

Hro looked at her and their eyes met. He had fire in them, his earlier lapse completely gone. She knew he would never give in. He just needed an opportunity.

She looked back down at her readout and smiled as she received the result she wanted. "I have disabled one of the Gordanian ship's engines," she informed him.

A small smile crept onto his face as he pressed a button on the undamaged side of his chair. A klaxon began to wail with instructions to abandon ship, confusing Shayera. Hro was up to something, but she didn't know what.

Hro looked forward to the helm. "We stay here on the bridge," he instructed. "Give our men time to escape and live to fight another day."

Hro looked forward to the helm, gripping tightly onto the sides of his chair. "Set course for the disabled Gordo ship. Begin approach on my command, full burn."

"Yes, Commander," Helmsman Vorik Khren acknowledged as he input the command into his console.

Konar called over to Hro. "Escape pods have begun to deploy."

The lights went out for several seconds after another enemy barrage struck the ship. Hro knew they didn't have much time and gave the order. "We cannot wait. Full power to engines. I want us going as fast as we possibly can when we hit that ship." He turned back to face Shayera. "I want all available energy on structural integrity forward. I don't want us to break apart on impact. Not right away at least. I want us to split them in half, is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir," she said with a nod as she carried out the command. Not that it would do much good. When their ship hit the Gordanian ship, both would be annihilated. This was it. This was where it would all end. At least it would end on their own terms.

The ship shuddered, causing the lights to go out completely. The only illumination was from the control consoles.

"What's going on!?" Hro demanded.

Shayera checked her console, which was giving her confused readings. "I'm not sure, the sensors are damaged, I can't get a reading."

Helmsman Vorik answered for her, "The other two ships are targeting our engines. They know what we're going to do."

"Shayera!" Hro shouted at her. "Stop them!"

"I can't, I don't know where the other ships even are anymore. Sensors are dead."

"We're blind, Sir," Vorik confirmed.

The ship shook violently. Shayera held on to her console tightly to avoid being thrown to the deck.

"Engines are offline," Vorik shouted.

"Doesn't matter," Hro said. "Our momentum will carry us the rest of the way now. All we have to do is wait."

Shayera closed her eyes tightly and waited for the end to come. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, the only sounds were that of an inconsistent hum of the failing ship around them.

She opened one of her eyes and looked around. Everyone seemed confused. Had the other ship managed to move out of the way? Or had the damage they took to the engines knocked them off course?

Shayera glanced back down at her console. The whole thing was a mass of red warning symbols. Nothing worked now. They were essentially in a giant coffin.

Hro looked at her in silence. There was nothing to be said now. They had failed utterly. They hadn't even managed to go out on their own terms.

Shayera let out a long, tired sigh and waited for the Gordanians to destroy their ship.

Without warning, the deafening sounds of explosions and the crunching of metal was all around her. She barely knew what was happening when she realised that she and everyone else was airborne.

Shayera struck the front wall of the bridge, twisting her right wing. She yelped as she bounced off and hit the deck hard.

She rolled onto her side and just laid there in pain as the ship continued to shake violently for several more seconds. Then it ceased.

Shayera lay there, her teeth gritted, her eyes closed tightly shut. But the pain wasn't what hurt most of all. It was how their effort to deal one final blow to the Gordanians had ended in such failure. To ram an enemy was the final insult, like a spit in their face. What had happened wasn't any of that. It was nothing but an embarrassment. They hadn't died in a blaze of glory. They hadn't smashed through the enemy ship or else they would be dead. Her best guess was that they had hit the enemy ship's hull and bounced off.

"Shayera."

She opened her eyes at the sound of Hro's voice and looked up at him.

Her eyes hurt as the lights flickered on and off. One moment the room was pitch black, the next it was overly bright. She shielded her eyes from the lights, focusing her attention onto Hro.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, as he reached down to help her to her feet.

"Not really," she said in a strained voice.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," she said nodding. "I think so."

"We need to check on the others," Hro said, moving off to where Vorik lay, while Shayera hobbled over to Konar, pain shooting up her left leg.

"He's alive," Hro said regarding Vorik.

Shayera awkwardly knelt down next to Konar and checked him over. She looked to Hro and shook her head.

Hro closed his eyes for a moment. "He died in service to his people," he said.

Shayera nodded as she stood up and made her way over to Hro. She was forced to walk slow as she found the incessant flickering of the lights to be disorienting.

"Do we carry him?" she asked as she stood next to the two.

Hro shook his head as he raised his hand and slapped Vorik hard on the face. The helmsman's eyes scrunched up behind his helmet before they slowly opened.

"Captain?" he asked confused.

"Get up soldier," Hro commanded. "We're leaving."

Vorik slowly climbed to his feet, his eyes straining at the flashing lights.

"Can you walk?" Hro asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Good, let's move."

Both Shayera and Vorik acknowledged with a "Yes, Sir," and "Acknowledged."

They headed for the door, which failed to open. Hro unsheathed his Nth metal axe and cleaved it into the door, forcing it open. The three of them stepped through into the darkened corridor beyond. Hro pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, illuminating the way ahead.

They moved onward through the ship. The usual thrum was gone, but the ship was far from quiet. Creaks and groans of shifting metal could be heard from deep within the ship.

They caught movement in a dimly, barely lit hallway. The three of them moved down it, weapons drawn. Hro moved his flashlight around, trying to get a better view. The light shone on an injured crewman, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Hro knelt down next to him. "Do you need help?" The crewman nodded. "Vorik, get him on his feet."

The helmsman did as his captain instructed and helped the man onto his feet.

Hro addressed the crewman, "Anyone else nearby?"

He shook his head. "Not that I know of. They all got to the lifepods. I'm not sure if there are any left."

"Then we head for the hangar deck," Hro said. "We grab a transport then leave. But first we stop by the reactor."

Shayera was confused. "Why?"

"I'm going to set it to overload. My guess is that we're still close to the Gordanian ship we crashed into. I intend to destroy it."

"It'll be a close call," Shayera said. "For the reactor to go critical only takes, what? Ten minutes? We'd have to set it, then run to the hangar bay and hope we get clear before it goes up."

"I'm aware of that," Hro commented as he began to move forward.

Everyone fell in step behind him and headed down an access-way which took them to the lower decks, which were devoid of crewmen.

Shayera found something oddly unsettling about the ship being so empty. The dim lights didn't help as it made the corridors feel claustrophobic, closed in and oppressive.

As they went around a corner, the faint sound of someone moaning in pain could be heard from somewhere ahead.

They increased their pace, both Shayera and the crewman lagging slightly behind due to their injuries.

The four of them came across an injured engineer who was stood leant up against the wall holding his left side.

"Crewman, are you alright?" Hro asked him.

He tried to stand up straight and salute the captain, but his posture was hunched. The man was clearly in pain. He then pointed to a pile of debris that was blocking off the corridor.

"What is it?" Hro questioned.

"There are trapped crewman," he wheezed.

Hro ran passed him towards where he had pointed and immediately began to excavate the debris. Shayera and Vorik quickly went to help him.

Even though she was injured herself, she didn't let it stop her. Shayera had never been one to let an injury slow her down, especially if some of her comrades needed her help.

Between the three of them, they were able to move a collapsed support strut from in front of a partially collapsed door. Between Hro and Vorik, they managed to force the door open, finding injured inside.

They helped those that could walk to their feet. Those that couldn't were left behind. They simply couldn't afford to waste time getting them to the hangar bay and they would simply slow them down.

The group, which now consisted of nearly twenty individuals continued onward towards the aft of the ship. It wasn't until they reached an intersection where one way led to the reactor deck and the other to the hangar bay, did Hro stop.

He turned to Shayera. "You get everyone to the hangar. I'll set the reactor to overload."

She shook her head. "We shouldn't split up."

"I wasn't making a suggestion Shayera, that was an order."

"But-"

"That was an order, Lieutenant," he said more forcefully. "Get to a transport and wait for me there."

Shayera nodded. "Understood, Commander."

"Good, now get going."

Reluctantly she led the group towards the hangar, while Hro headed towards the reactor. She didn't like the idea of him going there alone, but he was the one in charge and she was a soldier. She was bound to her duty and she would carry it out as best she could.

Unfortunately as they moved through an internal airlock that led to the hangar deck, they came across a group of Gordanians, which were blocking their bath to the bay.

In a moment her axe was in her hand and crackling with energy. She charged forward, her injuries forgotten. Her shipmates were right behind her. Those that had weapons had them raised, those that didn't would use their fists.

Shayera was the first one to strike. She swung her axe down hard, letting loose an angry shout as she buried it deep into her foe's armour.

She planted her left foot onto the fallen Gordanian's gut and pulled her axe free before looking for another opponent. She found him quite quickly. The green lizard charged at her, its own weapon drawn ready to strike.

Shayera struck the creature hard with the flat of her axe, knocking its weapon out of its hands. She then punched it hard in the gut, before headbutting the creature in the face.

The Gordanian went down hard clutching its head, while she moved on to her next target.

Shayera saw one of the lizards on top of an injured crewmen, beating him. She brought down her raised axe onto its back, causing the alien to stop what it was doing and howl in pain.

She kicked it off to the side then let the crewman beat the Gordanian senseless.

She looked around and saw that the fight was pretty much over. Once the last enemy had fallen, she turned to the Helmsman.

"Vorik, you go help the commander," she ordered. "Pick two to go with you."

He nodded and chose two crewmen before they headed off to the rector room while Shayera and the rest pushed onward.

They arrived at the airlock that led to the hangar bay. The light was red, indicating no pressure. Without wasting time, she led them into a side room where all of the pressure suits were stored.

None of them wasted no time getting into their suits. Shayera as an officer had her own, while the others used standard spacesuits.

With everyone sealed up, they headed back to the airlock and were cycled through four at a time until the whole group was stood inside the hangar bay.

The bay itself housed several fighter wings and transports which were secured on their launch racks that attached to the ceiling on runners. The runners were used to quickly extend the shuttles and fighters out of the bay in sequence so that they could drop-launch and be in the fight much faster and safer than if they launched from the bay itself one-by-one.

They were used for planetary drops. The transports carried troops, while the fighters were there for support. She herself had been involved in a drop several times. There was nothing like the rear door of a transport opening and them flying out into combat, with explosions and laser fire all around them. It was one of the most exhilarating things she had ever experienced.

Shayera gestured for everyone to stop, which they promptly did. She noticed a Gordanian dropship parked there in the bay, which meant there were probably more aboard than the ones they had encountered. By the looks of it, the craft was currently sat with no one aboard.

The main door was also open, or rather had been obliterated, with a few pieces of metal strewn about the hangar bay floor.

She put that out of her mind for the moment as she turned to the group. "Can anyone fly?" she asked. Only one raised their hand. She nodded. "You're the pilot of the transport. I'll be support in a fighter." Shayera then pointed to two crewmen as everyone began to file into the back of the transport. "You two with me. We're checking out that Gordo ship."

They nodded and followed her as they moved over to the ship. Shayera's leg was still giving her grief, but she was now able to ignore it for the most part. Besides, it could wait until they were out of immediate danger.

The three of them stepped up to the rear hatch. Shayera raised her axe and charged it, energy crackling along its blade. She then brought it down on the control panel, causing it to spark. She then sent a second pulse of energy into the panel, causing the door to slide open.

"I'll go first," she told the others as she stepped up the ramp only for two Gordanians to rush her.

She shielded the blow with her axe and moved clear of the second. The crewmen jumped at the Gordanians and held them long enough for Shayera to dispatch them both.

Lieutenant Hol moved to the cockpit and set it to launch before running out. The three of them got clear as the dropship flew out of the bay into space.

With that dealt with they headed back to their dropship and the two crewmen headed back inside, while she waited outside with the pilot.

From then, it wasn't long until the airlock from the ship was cycling and Hro with a group of three, before another five emerged after the next cycle, all of them in spacesuits.

"Report," Hro ordered once he was stood by Shayera.

Shayera answered immediately. "Came across some Gordanians. They have all been dealt with."

"Good. The reactor is set to go."

"I'm going to offer support in a fighter," she said.

Hro nodded as he turned to Vorik. "You do the same," he said. "We'll split up into two transports, I'll be piloting the second."

"Understood," Shayera acknowledged.

Hro rested his hands on her shoulders. "I'll see you on the other side, Shayera."

She smiled. "I look forward to it."

He leant forwards and their lips met, albeit briefly. He pulled away and rushed with the others to the second transport, while she and Vorik headed to the fighters.

She jumped in her craft and started the fighter's computer, which sprung into life.

Normally a pilot would check over the craft before a launch, but they simply didn't have time for that. She also knew that these fighters were meant more for planetary combat and wouldn't stand much chance against Gordanian capital ships. But they didn't have much of a choice.

After everyone had confirmed they were ready, the tow transports and the two fighters launched into space.

Shayera glanced behind to see the front of their ship embedded into the side of the Gordanian ship. That at least revealed why the other Gordanians hadn't outright destroyed their ship, as it would have destroyed the other ship as well.

Her attention was drawn to two large remaining enemy ships, which were now on an intercept course. Shayera clenched her teeth, knowing that if back-up didn't arrive within the next few minutes, they were dead.

That's when their ship the _Integrity_ exploded, after its reactor finally went into overload. The explosion tore both their ship and the Gordanian ship to pieces, but it also sent out a huge shock-wave that rushed towards them at surprising speed.

Lieutenant Shayera Hol knew they wouldn't outrun it. She braced knowing it was going to be a rough ride.

The shockwave hit and her world began to spin. Her control panel flickered on and off as the whole craft vibrated. She held on to the joystick tightly, hoping that it would pass before the fighter came apart.

Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky. The craft began to tear apart as it spun faster and faster, until she was ejected from the craft.

The last things she thought before passing out from the G-forces, was that she hoped Hro had survived.


	2. HG:Y1:E01:Ch02

**Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter Two**

Shayera's eyes opened to find herself staring up at a metal bulkhead. Her first thought was confusion as to where she was and how she got here.

"Ah, you're awake," a voice said.

Shayera looked to see a woman approach and realised she was in a med bay. "I am Commander Veronis," she greeted. "You're aboard the _Garrison_."

Shayera clutched her head as it began to pound. The last thing she remembered was escaping their exploding ship.

"What happened?" Shayera said though clenched teeth.

"We won the battle, the cowards ran away. Unfortunately, we came too late. You were the only survivor."

Shayera looked at the commander in shock. She struggled to comprehend what she had just been told for several moments. It was impossible, how could she be the only one?

"How?" Shayera asked, her head still pounding. "What about the escape pods? The two transport shuttles, the other fighter?"

"You were spaced. We almost didn't see you. We also found a damaged troop transport but everyone was dead."

"Just one?" Shayera questioned.

"Yes, why?" Veronis asked confused.

"There were two transports. Did you find the second one?"

"There was only one. If there was another, it was most likely vaporised when you ship's reactor blew."

"What about Hro?" Shayera demanded. "Where's Hro?"

"Commander Talak is MIA, presumed dead."

Shayera shook her head vehemently. "No, he's not dead. We have to go back."

"We spent twelve hours searching the area. You are the only one we found. Accept it Lieutenant, you are the only one that made it out of there. I would be grateful if I were you."

"Grateful?" Shayera asked in disbelief. "Grateful!?" she repeated more angrily.

"Watch that tone, Lieutenant," Commander Veronis warned. "This is tough to hear, I appreciate that. However, it's the truth and you're going to have to deal with it. You could easily be dead along with the rest of the officers and crew of the _Integrity_. You're not, which means you live to fight another day."

Shayera stared up at the ceiling her jaw clenched, silently fuming. She knew that snapping at the commander wouldn't do any good, but it was tempting. She was furious. Furious at herself, at the Gordanians, at Commander Veronis for not arriving sooner.

"I came to see if you were awake," Veronis continued, unperturbed by the lieutenant's mood. "Mainly because I want to ask some questions."

"Go ahead," Shayera said, keeping her eyes locked on the ceiling. "Ask away."

"What happened?"

"We were attacked," Shayera said simply, holding her own grief in check. Was Hro really dead? She honestly couldn't believe that. To go through everything they had together and then for him to die? It just didn't feel right.

The commander grunted. "Yes, I know you were attacked. We retrieved the black box from the other two ships, but yours was completely annihilated. From what we could gather it seems your ship was inside a Gordanian ship when it exploded."

"Partially inside," Shayera said, her voice strained. "Hro ordered us to ram it, but our engines were disabled before we could get to full speed, so we only embedded ourselves in the side."

Commander Veronis folded her arms. "I find it interesting that you call Commander Talak by his first name. Were you in a relationship with your commanding officer?"

This caught Shayera's attention and she looked at the other woman. "So what if I was?"

The commander seemed taken aback by her tone.

"You have a problem with that, don't you," Shayera surmised.

"Yes, I do," Veronis said. "Distractions get people killed and relationships aboard a warship is a distraction that we cannot afford, especially during combat."

"It's fine to be wrong, Commander," Shayera commented.

"Enough," Veronis said firmly, flaring her wings in annoyance. "That's not why I'm here. To get back on track, what happened after you rammed the Gordo ship?"

Shayera sighed and rubbed her tired, aching eyes before answering. "Hro decided it would be best to detonate the reactor and escape. That's what we did."

"Lieutenant, from now on you will address you commanding officer by his rank, not by his first name, is that understood?"

Shayera stared back up at the ceiling. She knew if she looked at the commander she might jump off the bed and start pounding her face. "Perfectly."

"Perfectly, _what_?"

Veronis was certainly pushing her luck. "Perfectly, Sir."

"Good. Now that is all I needed for now. Once the doctor has released you I expect a full report, understood?"

"Perfectly, Sir."

Commander Veronis glared at her then promptly she turned and left. It was a few moments before said doctor arrived by her bed.

"Good afternoon Lieutenant Hol. I hope the good Commander didn't upset you."

"I'm not upset easily," Shayera replied dryly.

"You seem to be taking Commander Talak's death rather well all things considered," he commented.

Shayera turned to him with a deep glare. "Just do what you came to do and leave."

"If that's what you want."

"It most definitely is."

"In that case I'm simply going to ask a few questions."

Shayera's glare deepened. "More questions?" she asked. She couldn't deal with this right now. "Fine, just get it over with."

The doctor webbed his fingers. "Well, firstly are you in any pain?"

She looked at him, her glare more intense than it had been before. "Is this a joke? Of course I'm in pain. I had my wing broken, my leg hurts and I have a really bad migraine. So can we hurry this up?"

"You wing wasn't broken, just twisted slightly. Also, your leg had a minor fracture. Both will take some time to heal. The best thing right now is rest."

Her gaze remained intense. "Thanks, doctor, real good prognosis you've got there."

"Well," he said stepping back, feeling intimidated by the way she was looking at him. "I think the questions can wait until later. For now I'll leave you to get some rest."

The doctor moved off leaving her alone. She lay there staring at the ceiling unsure exactly how she felt. To be honest with herself, she just felt tired, worn down and empty.

Was Hro really dead? She couldn't believe he was. It just didn't feel real to her.

Shayera continued to lay there and stare at the ceiling until her fatigue was too much and she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The trip back to Thanagar was a long one. It was over two weeks before she arrived back on the homeworld.

First was the reports she had to file while aboard the _Garrison_. Then came the realisation that Hro was probably dead, which itself brought dreams and nightmares, which were thankfully brief and disappeared after the first week.

Healing hadn't been too bad. She wasn't one to let injury stop her at anything. It had been made more difficult as her journey home hadn't been just on one ship. She had been bounced between ships and transports, more than she could count or cared to count.

Now, nearly three weeks after Hro and the _Integrity_ had been taken from her, Shayera was finally setting foot in her home, a place she hadn't seen in a decade.

The old house was where she had grown up. But now it stood mostly empty. A reminder of everything that was now gone.

The building was maintained by robots mainly, but there had also been a housekeeper, who had been injured during the war and unable to fight. It appeared at a cursory glance that he had been keeping this place up to scratch, but it seemed he wasn't here at that moment, but he would be. He lived here after-all.

She moved through the house and sat on the bench on the rear porch and stared out across the meadow. She watched as the grass and the trees blew gently the breeze.

Her gaze moved up to the sky. It was hard to imagine that right now, up there other Thanagarians were fighting and dying. The thought did nothing but make her feel guilty. Why had she been the one to survive?

A sound behind her brought her out of her reverie. She looked behind to see the housekeeper Derius step out onto the porch with her.

"I heard you were home," he said.

"You did?" she asked. "How?"

"Your father."

That took her by surprise. "He knew?"

"He's here on Thanagar," Derius said.

"Father's here?" Shayera asked him. "How long?"

"About a week," Derius replied. "His ship's undergoing a refit with new technology. He told me that if it's successful, then it might help us in the war."

"Hopefully," she said. "So is he coming home?"

"He has been home," Derius said. "I'm sure if he has the opportunity, he will come see you."

"I hope," she mused, looking back out across the meadow.

He sat down next to her. "It has been a while," he commented.

She looked at him with a nod. "A little over ten years since I was last here." She sighed. Five of them had been mostly on her own. Espionage wasn't exactly a team effort when it came to the actual infiltration. It had been for the most part, her on her own finding enemy secrets. The next four years had been under Hro.

Derius rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know what it's like to think it's the end and to come out alive."

She nodded in understanding. While Derius had been employed as a housekeeper he was more than that. He was now part of the family. When her mother had been drafted into the military when Shayera was just a girl, he had been the one that had been charged with taking care of her.

Derius had been severely injured in battle before mandatory draft had been a thing. He had lost both wings and his right leg. He had been deemed unfit for military duty and his commanding officer, her father, had hired him, not out of sympathy, but out of regret that it was his decisions that had led to him being maimed.

He didn't blame her father, though. Derius was a soldier and during that fateful battle so long ago, victory had not been something within reach and their defeat had been certain. But her father had turned a loss into a win. But not without sacrifice.

Derius knew he would have died and the battle would have been lost. Instead the battle was won, but he was left maimed. Despite this, he was proud of his role in that battle, though remorseful.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Hro," she said. "He's gone. They killed him."

"I'm sorry. I knew from your letters that the two of you were close."

"We were," she said. "But it was just a fools fantasy. We're at war. There's no time for love."

"There's always time for love," Derius said. "But it doesn't always go as you planned. I know this. I've never told you this before, but I was due to wed once and become a husband. But the war came and we put it off as we went to fight. Our first engagement she was killed, taken from me. Our dream was never fulfilled."

"And mine won't be either," Shayera said miserably.

"Do not fret Shayera. You're young and there are still plenty of opportunities for love out there for you."

She glared at him. "Don't," she said furiously. "Don't you patronise me."

Derius was taken aback by her reaction. "I didn't mean disrespect."

"No?" she seethed. "It's been so long since you've loved that you've forgotten what it is. I can't just move on and find someone else, Derius, it doesn't work like that."

"I'm sorry," he apologised earnestly. "I was trying to comfort you. I'm not very good at this kind of thing."

Shayera's stern features softened. "No, I should be sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just that I miss him and I don't know if this wound his absence has left will ever heal."

"It will become easier, but it will never heal."

Shayera knew what he was saying was true. She just wished it wasn't. The pain of her mother dying was still there. It still hurt and there was still an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach when she thought about it. Was Hro's death going to add to the void?

Another tear rolled down her cheek. She didn't want to think about her mother again, but the death of someone else she loved brought those feelings back to the surface. She couldn't help but wonder how many of her childhood friends had died in this war with the Gordanians or how many of them had lost loved ones?

She shook her head, forcing the thoughts out of her mind. She was an officer of Thanagar. Weakness was something she wasn't supposed to have.

Shayera kept her eyes on the meadow. "I need some time alone to think," she told him.

"I understand," he said standing up. "I will be inside if you need me."

"Thank you."

She sat there for a few hours staring out at the world beyond, until the sun started to set. She then went inside and told Derius she was tired. He informed her that her room was as she left it. She thanked him and headed upstairs to bed.

* * *

The next two days Shayera spent at home, rekindling her friendship with Derius. She found that she had missed the old man during her time in the service.

During those two days, she had expected to be called back into action, but it didn't come. She knew it would eventually, though as to where she would end up, she didn't know.

Truthfully she wasn't looking forward to it. While the thought of busting Gordanian heads was appealing to her, the loss of Hro still shook her to the bone.

On the start of the third day, Shayera was starting to grow restless. It was as she was about to go out when she bumped into her father.

"Hello, Shay," he said with a smile.

She stood tall and saluted. "General."

"At ease, Shay. Today I'm your father."

She smiled. "Derius said you were on Thanagar."

"I am, or rather mostly above it, overlooking the refit of my ship."

"He said that as well."

He stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. "Listen closely Shay. We haven't seen each other much since your mother's passing and I'm sorry for that."

Shayera nodded, her mood turning glum. "Yes, I know. But we have a war to fight, I understand."

"Yes, we do have a war to fight. Come, there's something I want to show you."

She followed him as he took her upstairs and entered the large bedroom that he and her mother had once slept in.

He moved over to the large closet that was constructed into the wall and pulled it open. He retrieved a large case and placed it carefully at Shayera's feet.

"This was important to your mother," he said as he moved aside. "Open it," he instructed.

Shayera knelt down and pulled it open. Inside was a gold coloured cuirass, a flared black, and bronze helm and a silver Nth mace along with shiny long dark brown, near black sleeveless tunic and pants.

"These were your mothers," he told her. "The chest armour belonged to you grandmother I believe, perhaps her mother before her. Your mother wanted you to have these."

Shayera looked up at her father with tears in her eyes. "Not exactly military issue," she tried to joke.

A sad smile crossed his lips. "If she were allowed, your mother would have worn them into battle. Perhaps one day you will have the chance to wear them. Or perhaps give them to your own daughter."

"If I have any children," she said sorrowfully. "Hard to do that when the one you love dies. I know I'm not the only one to lose a loved one, but that doesn't make it any easier. But what if it happens again? What if when I go back out there I fall in love and lose them again?"

"Regarding going back out there," he said, his tone of voice becoming a little strained. "I have some bad news."

"What do you mean?" she asked, feeling a little confused.

"You've been assigned to Thanagar, Shay. You are to report to the recruitment centre in one week."

"Recruitment centre?" she questioned. "But I'm not a recruit," she pointed out.

"I know. You will be in charge of making sure the new blood know how to fight."

"I'm being grounded?" she asked in disbelief. "After everything, you're having me babysit new recruits?"

"Not my decision, Shay. They knew I would be seeing you, so they told me to tell you."

"But you're a general. Couldn't you-"

He raised his hand, indicating for her to stop. "No, I couldn't and I wouldn't. I will not interfere in your career Shayera. We both agreed that you should stand up on your own and take whatever came to you in stride. That you should earn your ranks, not be given to them. I will not start to interfere now just because things aren't going your way."

"I'm not a teacher, Father. I'm a warrior."

"You're a warrior with knowledge."

"I'm a warrior that needs to be out there fighting."

"I know you want to be out there. This will most likely be a temporary thing, Shay. After what you've been through, they need to know you're still up to the job."

"And what if it isn't temporary?" she questioned. "What if I'm stuck looking after children."

"The recruits may not have experience, but they're hardly children."

She dismissed what her father said with a wave of her hand. "I don't have the patience for it."

He smiled at her. "You're one of the most patient people I know."

Shayera didn't know how to respond to that. In her own mind, she was quick to annoy, especially around junior officers and inexperienced crewmen. She had no time for it. She just wanted the people around her to know what they were doing and to just get on with it.

"I'm not patient any more," she said finally.

"Then this might do you some good," he said. "Changes of scenery can help refocus the mind."

"I suppose I could vent my frustrations out on some recruit," she mused.

"You're not supposed to beat them senseless, Shayera," he said with a smirk. "But some of them may need it."

Shayera chuckled. "Maybe it won't be so bad after all."

"Perhaps not," he agreed. "Sorry to do this to you after giving you the bad news, but I have to get back to my post."

"Okay," she said with a sigh. "Thanks for coming to see me."

"With luck, we'll see each other again before I head off back into the fray."

"I'll see you then, father."

"Yes, you will."

They headed back downstairs to the front door and she watched him go, staring after him as he took to the sky and flew southward. Once he was out of sight, she turned and headed back inside, sitting down at the dining table.

She was happy to see her father and even happier that her mother wanted her to have her old armour and mace. But the news that she was going to be stuck at the Recruitment Centre was frustrating.

Over the years, the Recruitment Centres had changed quite a lot. At first they were there simply to sign up to the military. Now they offered a bigger service. Not only did those drafted have to sign up at their local centre, but the centre now dealt with basic training starting usually on the day of signing and into the next two weeks. Then the recruits were sent on to a military base where they would receive home assignment until they were deemed ready for an actual combat assignment.

She sad truth was that the recruits were never truly ready when they became soldiers or assigned as crewmen. And those that came from wealthier families and were assigned straight to higher ranking officers were even less likely to be ready for combat.

Shayera had worked hard her career and she wasn't going to lie down and take this new assignment without a fight.


	3. HG:Y1:E01:Ch03

**Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter Three**

It was worse than she could have imagined. Not ever would she imagine that she would be doing this. It was unbearable, it was plain torture.

Shayera Hol, who was supposed to be a lieutenant in rank, was sat behind a desk with a row of three older, retired former soldiers as lines of would-be recruits lined up in front of them.

Apparently there this was a recruitment phase and she hoped it was. She didn't want to be sat here doing this hour after hour, day after day. Just the thought made her wish she had died along with Hro.

If she wasn't so angry about her situation she could have laughed. Her father had said she had much knowledge she could pass on, but she wasn't passing anything on at this desk. Her job was to get the recruits to fill out paperwork, check it for errors then send them on to one of the training areas.

The mask-less male Thanagarian recruit slid the paperwork he had finished filling out back to her. She read through it, her eyes stopping on what his previous occupation was.

"You were a school teacher?" she asked.

He nodded.

"You were drafted?" she asked, concerned.

"Yes, I was drafted," he replied.

Shayera quickly read through the rest of it to make sure there were no errors before she stamped it. "Go into the back room. Someone will be there shortly to take you to a training area soon."

He stood up and moved off while Shayera filed away the paperwork.

It had shocked her to know that school teachers were now being drafted. Who would be in charge of teaching the next generation of Thanagarians if all of their teachers were out at war? Or were others who were too old to fight now assigned as teachers?

She tried to put it out of her mind as she called the next recruit to sit down. The young Thanagarian woman did so and Shayera slid over the paperwork for her to fill out.

While she was filling it out, Shayera thought back to the teacher. If they were starting to draft them, then that meant things weren't going well.

The young woman finished the paperwork after roughly fifteen minutes and passed it over to Shayera who read through it. She was fresh out of school, drafted straight into the military. Looking at the line, it seemed that was the case with most of them.

She stamped the form and told her the same thing that she had told the previous. The recruit headed into the back while Shayera filed away her form.

She then sat back down and called the next one, passing him an empty form.

She had been here roughly an hour at this point. Taking away the hour they had for the breaks, she still had another eight hours sat here. Why had she, a fully mobile and capable warrior and officer been relegated to a job like this? Had she done something wrong? Had her accidental survival been seen as cowardice somehow?

Shayera glanced at the others that were in the same position as she was. They were much older. One of them, a large male was missing part of his wing, while another had lost an eye and her right arm.

She wondered how they could bear to do this all of the time for hours and hours on end. She was already bored to tears.

She was going to fight this. Putting her here was a waste of everyone's time and her potential. For today and possible the rest of the week, however, she was just going to have to deal with it.

* * *

It had been another three days sat there at that recruitment desk before she was moved. She was still stuck at the centre, but now she was one of the ones doing basic training.

Today, though, she wasn't actually the one training them, she was just an observer, while another, a much older Thanagarian soldier by the name of Vari was the one going over how to proper wield their weapons, which most if not all Thanagarians should know anyway.

As the group split into teams and practised sparring with a partner, Vari stepped up beside Shayera.

Vari herself was just like Shayera, dressed in typical military garb. Though, her helmet wasn't standard. It was silver, with feathered wings on it. It looked ornate, perhaps even antique. She suspected it was quite old. She had several guesses as to why she would wear it here. The most likely was because of family tradition.

Vari turned to Shayera. "What do you think of them?" the elder asked.

"They're inexperienced," Shayera answered. "But fighting is in their blood. They'll be ready when they leave here."

"You think so?"

"If they're not, then they're in for a tough time."

Vari nodded at that as she looked at the group before them. "May I ask you a question, Lieutenant Hol?"

"Go ahead."

"Why are you here?"

The question confused Shayera. She was here because she was assigned here. She didn't want to be here, she wanted to be out there fighting the enemy.

"Not my choice," Shayera said finally.

"What was your last assignment?"

"I was the commander of the air squadron on a cruiser. It was destroyed, only I got out."

"I see," Vari said.

"Why do you ask?" Shayera questioned suspiciously. There was something about the way she had said "I see," that didn't sit well with her.

"No reason."

Shayera decided not to pursue it. Instead, she chose to point out something that was bothering her about one of the trainees. "P'artek's holding his axe wrong. In real combat, he would end up having it knocked from his grip."

Vari nodded with a smile. "Go instruct him then. I will watch."

Shayera moved off towards the trainee as she suspected, even a gently knock from his opponent caused the axe to fly free from his grip and crash to the hard tiled floor.

"You're holding it wrong," Shayera told him as she picked up the axe and passed it back to him. "You're holding it too far down the handle making the weapon unbalanced."

P'artek snatched the axe from her. "I know how to hold a weapon," he said heatedly.

"Continue, then," Shayera said folding her arms. "Your opponent will simply knock your weapon from your grip again."

He ignored her and she stepped back as the two began to trade practice hits with their weapons. Once again the axe was knocked free from his grip. P'artek growled as he retrieved it, catching a glimpse of Shayera smirking at him.

"What do you find so funny?" he snapped, his voice filling the room.

"Nothing. Please continue as you were."

By now the other recruits had stopped and had started to stare. P'artek held his axe wrong yet again and began to spar and once again it was knocked free from his grip.

P'artek picked up his axe and glared at Shayera as she let out a chuckle.

"You laugh but I don't think you even know how to fight," he said. "You don't look much older than me and I doubt you've seen much combat."

"I assure you, child, that I have been in many battles," she told him. "You wouldn't stand a chance."

"Prove it," he said, raising his axe.

Shayera didn't even unsheath her mother's mace that lay on her hip. Instead, she knocked the axe free from his grip with a backhand swipe, then punched him in the face, sending him down on his back with a right hook.

The others began to laugh. P'artek growled at her. He then kicked out to try and trip her, but she simply stepped out of the way.

"Be careful P'artek," she warned. "Attacking a superior in the military can be grounds for being thrown out an airlock without a space suit." She pointed to his sparring partner. "Jarek here will keep knocking your weapon from your grip for the rest of the day unless you learn how to hold it correctly. In a real battle you would be dead."

P'artek cast his gaze to the floor, feeling thoroughly embarrassed by the whole ordeal. "Yes, Sir," he said in a strained voice.

"You can call me Lieutenant Hol." She looked to the others who were watching. "You are supposed to be practising," she told them. "Get to it."

They all continued to spar, including P'artek and Jarek, the former now holding his axe more correctly.

Shayera moved back over to Vari. "He has an anger problem," she said.

"I have a feeling you were like him when you were a recruit," Vari commented. "Antagonistic against authority."

"Maybe a little bit," Shayera said with a half-shrug. "But I knew how to hold a weapon."

"I think you'll make a fine teacher one day," Vari told her. "But right now you should be out there fighting, not stuck here."

"Oh, I agree wholeheartedly."

"I'm sure it won't be long until you see real combat again," Vari told her with conviction.

"You know something I don't?"

Vari shook her head. "Just a feeling."

Shayera gave the woman a sideways glance. She had a feeling the older woman knew something that she didn't. That feeling plagued her for the rest of the day.

* * *

It was not until another three days had passed that Shayera was given a group of her own to train and she wasn't particularly happy about it. Not because she was worried, but because she didn't want to be here teaching trainees.

Still, she did her best, though over the next few weeks she started to get a reputation after knocking several recruits out.

It wasn't until half-way through her fourth week that a man with the rank of commander entered. He stood at the back of the room and watched her as she directed the recruits on the weak spots in Gordanian armour. Once she was done and sent them all for a break, he approached.

"Lieutenant Hol," he greeted. "I am Commander Helan."

She stood there with her arms folded. "What is it you need, Commander?"

"I have good news," he said.

"And that is?"

"You're being reassigned."

Shayera held her hopes until he told her where she was being reassigned. Then she just felt confused.

"Your father has requested your presence."

That took her by surprise. He had specifically said that he wasn't going to interfere. This meant that he had either changed his mind, or something else had happened. But what?

"When do I leave? She asked him.

"Finish up today, then I'll be at your house in the morning to pick you up."

"Understood," Shayera said with a smile and a nod.

He saluted and she saluted back. He then left the room, leaving Shayera feeling elated. She was finally going out into space. Sure, it would be under her father's command, but she was going to be back in the fight.

* * *

Shayera awoke early, feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead. After dressing in her military attire and sheathing her mother's mace on her hip, she headed downstairs and had some breakfast.

After saying her goodbyes to Derius, she stepped outside and waited for the Commander to show up, which he promptly did.

She followed him as they flew south towards the local military base. From there they grabbed a transport to the capital city. From there he led her all the way to where the meeting would be taking place in Thanagar's military HQ.

The two of them stepped into the room, which was filled by superior officers, mostly commanders, which there were seven of them. Shayera felt a little out of place as she sat down between a commander and a colonel. They all looked forward to where her father, General Hol stood.

"Good you're here," he commented. "I think that's everyone."

"Get on with it, Hol," the senior General said grumpily. "We don't have all day."

He nodded. "We have discovered the location of a Gordanian prison camp," General Hol began. "They have been capturing and torturing Thanagarian prisoners there, trying to learn our secrets."

The senior general, a man by the name of Torr folded his arms and leant back in his chair. "And how did we get this information? And could it be a Gordanian trap?"

"Possible," General Hol admitted. "We received a transmission from a captured commander who had gained access and was able to get a message out to us."

"Who was this commander?" Torr asked.

Her father looked her straight in the eyes as he said the name. "It was sent by a Commander Hro Talak."

For a moment Shayera thought she was going to have a heart attack. Her heart began to beat hard in her chest and she became short of breath.

Was it possible? Was Hro still alive? Had he been captured by the Gordanians? If so what had they done to him? Had they tortured him, brutalised him? It made her feel queasy to think about, but it also gave her hope. Hope that she would see him again, to be able to smell his rugged scent again.

Shayera webbed her fingers tightly together when she realised they had started to shake. It felt so surreal to her. She had given up hope and started to accept that he was dead. For him not to be was everything she had desperately hoped for.

A loud voice calling her name pulled her from her thoughts. She looked to General Torr who was glaring at her.

"Are you paying attention, Lieutenant?"

"Yes Sir, sorry, Sir."

"Answer the question," he said looking angrily at her.

She suddenly felt very small and embarrassed. "What question was the question, Sir?"

He growled at her. "I wanted to know if you have previous experience in combat drops. Your last assignment was as an air commander, correct?"

"Correct, Sir. And yes, I have both been involved in and led squadrons in a combat drop into hostile airspace, Sir."

"Good, because General Hol has put you in charge of one of the assault teams."

"Yes, Sir."

"Try to pay attention from now on. Understood?"

"Perfectly, Sir."

"Good. Now continue General Hol."

Her father nodded. "Thank you General Torr. To get back on track, we sent in an agent to scope out the planet. They found one very large prison facility with multiple camps inside, upwards of twenty-five separate camps holding between forty and fifty hostages."

Torr grunted. "Did this agent make contact with any prisoners?"

"No, they simply mapped out the facility as best they could, including defences and left before being discovered."

"So I assume you have a plan?"

General Hol nodded in affirmation. "Yes, we will be sending in three groups and will attack the prison from three fronts, one of which will be led by Lieutenant Hol. The goal is to hold off Gordanian forces and any reinforcements while we rescue our people from the surface. We believe there may be up to a thousand prisoners on the surface, maybe more. We go in, wipe out their defences and forces, send in transports and start pulling out the prisoners."

General Torr drummed his fingers against the table. "Sounds simple, but we all know it won't be."

"Of course," General Hol agreed. "But whatever happens, they'll get a bloody nose."

General Torr webbed his fingers together. There was something about his demeanour that gave Shayera the impression that she wasn't going to like what he was going to say next. "General Hol," he began. "The war is not going our way," he continued. "I need to ask whether you really think saving a thousand odd prisoners is worth it? Those ships and personnel could be better served elsewhere."

"Morale is important," General Hol stated. "We need good news. Rescuing a thousand of our men will give us something to celebrate. It also adds a thousand experienced soldiers back into the fight."

"Soldiers that might be physically and mentally damaged by their experience," General Torr argued. "So far I'm not entirely convinced that we should proceed with this mission."

Out of instinct, Shayera gripped the handle of her weapon. The thought of bashing General Torr around the head did appeal to her at that moment, but she knew doing that wouldn't help him make up his mind.

Her father came to the rescue. "This mission isn't really that optional. If the troops find out that we ran away when we had a chance to save our comrades, then they will lose faith in the command chain. They will think we're cowards."

Torr dismissed the notion. "Nonsense. Better to leave them to their fate then risk so many lives to rescue them. Especially when they might not be of any use."

A colonel who Shayera didn't know the name of spoke up. "We won't win this war if we don't take risks."

"I agree," a commander added. "There's only one type of person who's afraid of taking risks."

General Hol took the opportunity presented. "Are you a coward, General Torr?" he questioned.

Torr's eyes bulged in fury. "How dare you!"

Shayera's father stood up and drew his sword. "I am willing to fight for our people. Are you?"

"Is that a threat, Hol?" Torr said, eyeing the weapon.

"Can you say the same, Torr?" General Hol demanded. "Can you say you are willing to fight?"

"Fine, have it your way. But if this mission goes badly, it's on your head, Hol, mark my words."

Shayera watched as her father sheathed his weapon and sat down, satisfied by the result. "Tomorrow morning is when we leave. Everyone is dismissed." He then looked directly at Shayara. "Lieutenant Hol. Will you please wait for me outside."

She nodded and filed out of the room after everyone else. While the others dispersed, she remained, waiting for her father.

As she stood there only one thing was on her mind. Hro. She wasn't sure if she truly believed it. She had hoped, but now? She didn't want to get her hopes up only for it to be ripped away from her again. She was already dealing with his death and to be suddenly told he was alive, it just didn't feel real to her.

Shayera's heart ached for him. She needed him. If he was alive then she would save him. She would fight and make sure he came home.

The door to the conference room opened and her father stepped over to her. She stood firm and saluted.

"General Hol," she greeted.

"Lieutenant," he responded.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes. We'll be heading straight up to my ship."

"Yes, Sir," she acknowledged.

"Unless there's something you want to pick up from home?"

"No, Sir. Perhaps only to say a farewell to Derius."

He nodded in understanding. "Unfortunately we'll have to make a call instead. I want the fleet to be ready and shipping out as soon as possible. We're already heading into the unknown and if the enemy get wind of what's going on we'll be more at a disadvantage."

"I understand. We'll kick those Gordo's asses, Sir."

He smirked. "Let's get going."

The two of them headed outside and to the landing pads where they climbed into a transport. After her father had given the pilot his instruction, they ascended up into orbit and to their destination, her father's battleship, a ship named _Warhawk_.


	4. HG:Y1:E01:Ch04

**Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter Four**

The half-conscious Hro Talak was dragged to the holding area of roughly forty prisoners and was thrown inside. The inner, then outer security door slammed shut before he had even hit the ground.

The encampment was a large area that was surrounded by four walls. It had the appearance of being open to the sky, however, there was a forcefield above them, which crackled with deadly energy. One Thanagarian had tried to escape, but the energy field had turned him to little more than ashes.

The camp also had small huts along the walls where they slept, though there weren't any beds, just the floor and there also wasn't anywhere to wash themselves or other amenities.

The only water they got was from a single water fountain that was far from clean and their food was dropped from a port in the upper walls and there was never enough to go around.

Several Thanagarians approached the injured commander. One in particular knelt beside him. "Hro?"

"Shayera?" he whispered, his unfocused eyes looking at her.

"No, It's Paran. Paran Dul," she told him, feeling her heart sink at the mention of the other woman's name.

All of the Thanagarian prisoners were helmet-less and were dressed in little more than rags. None of them were in good shape, but Hro had come off the worst. He was the senior officer and the one the Gordanians wanted information from. He also stepped in and took the punishments that were meant for others.

Torture was something that Hro dealt with on a near daily basis. His face was scarred and his wings were starting to look skeletal.

It had only gotten worse when they had found him sneaking around. Luckily they hadn't discovered he had managed to get a message off to Thanagar before he was caught.

Hro rubbed his eyes and squinted at her. "Paran," he said. "How goes the plan?"

She was in awe. Even though he was obviously in pain, his mind never failed to focus on what was important. He was also very handsome, despite the horrible scarring and his currently gaunt features. She felt jealousy when she heard him mention or talk about Shayera.

While Paran would never tell Hro that she was glad that Shayera was likely dead, she would try and pursue something with him once they got out of this prison. And they would escape.

Paran answered his question, "In the next few days I think we can make the attempt."

"Everyone better be ready and prepared to fight potentially to the death," he said, pushing himself uneasily to his feet. Paran tried to help him, but he shrugged her off. "If this fails," he continued, "then we won't get another chance. This will be it. It will be all or nothing. If we fail, then we must ensure we die fighting. We cannot be re-captured."

He stood as tall as he could and walked further into the cell. She watched him go feeling almost in awe. After everything he had gone through he was still able to stand up and walk as though nothing was wrong.

Everyone else seemed to slouch, but not Hro. She and the others would follow him. He had a charisma that made them want to follow, made them not want to let him down.

She looked at Kragger, a fellow prisoner, as he stepped up beside her. "Do you think we'll defeat them?" he asked.

"As long as Commander Talak is leading the charge, I believe we can beat anything."

"He doesn't look like he'll be able to lead much of anything in his current state," Kragger commented.

Paran swung and punched him hard in the face, sending him crashing down to the floor. Everyone looked their way as she shouted down at him. "If you have such little faith in Commander Talak, then perhaps while the rest of us fight for our freedom, you should stay here like a coward."

Kragger glared up at her, then to those around him. He then stood back up. "I am not a coward and I will fight."

Hro's voice cut through as he approached them. "He has a right to be sceptical," he said, his voice surprisingly strong considering what he had been through. "But I will prove myself and then you will see for yourself. I do not give up and I will not surrender. We will be free and we will fight the Gordo's back to the sludge pool they emerged from. No matter what it takes."

* * *

The door slid open and Shayera stepped into her father's office aboard the _Warhawk_. He sat there reading whatever was on the small monitor that lay on his desk. He didn't seem to notice her, so she remained stood at attention by the door.

Taking a look around his office, she saw that it was decorated with a plethora of bladed weapons, though there were some bows and a laser pistol. Most of them appeared to be antiques or at the very least replicas and some of them she recognised from history.

Her father confirmed her suspicions. "They're mostly replicas," he informed her, his attention no longer on the monitor.

She saluted him. "General."

"At ease, Shay. Let's talk as family. We don't often get the chance."

"Yes, Father," she replied, relaxing.

"Sit down," he said offering a seat. She did so. "Do you like the collection?"

"It's very nice," she said. "I recognise some of them, like the sword of Dregnar and the bow of T'larek."

Her father nodded. "Yes, I'm glad you know your history."

"Our history is important to us," she said.

He nodded. "That's true. Right now, though, I think we should focus on something a little more immediate."

"Agreed."

"We are twenty-seven hours away from our destination," he told her. "The battle is sure to be fierce and many will die."

"I know," Shayera said. "That is the way of war, unfortunately."

He nodded, before he webbed his fingers together, resting his elbows on his desk. "I want to tell you that your mother would be proud of you," he told her sincerely. "I have been following your career closely. You have accomplished so much. Yet you are overlooked."

Shayera remained silent and allowed him to continue.

"I have become increasingly unpopular with the other military leaders, mainly because they feel I am too forceful and because I didn't buy my way into my rank and position, unlike most of them. We are not of noble stock, Shayera and they see the respect I hold as a slight against them. That's why you ended up at the recruitment facility." He sighed. "Listen Shay. Just keep working hard and you will reach the rank of general one day. They cannot keep you down forever."

She felt genuine joy from hearing how much faith he had in her. "That means a lot, thank you. Also, thank you for letting me get here on my own."

"Well, almost," he said. "You're here on this ship and on this mission because of me," he pointed out.

"Yes, you saved me from being stuck at the recruitment centre. Thanks for that. But you had a reason."

"I did. I know being given the chance to rescue Hro would mean a lot to both you and to him. He's a good man, Shayera, one that I would be proud to add to the family."

Shayera cringed slightly. "Getting ahead of yourself."

"Perhaps," he said. "Though know this Shay; if this mission is a success, then you will have respect as well. At the very least from the soldiers you help free. And Hro."

She sighed sadly. "Do you really think he's alive?"

"We received a message that we believe was from him, yes. Our agent wasn't able to confirm, but it is definitely a prison facility."

She rubbed her eyes with her fingers by sliding them under her bronze military helmet. "I want to believe it. To believe that he's still alive, but I daren't in case it's not true. I've lost him once. I don't want to lose him again."

"You really do love him, don't you," her father commented.

"Yes, I am. Or was, or-" She sighed. She was stumbling over her words because she didn't want to get too invested in him being alive. It was just too painful. "Yes, I'm close to him," she said at last.

"You will get the chance to save him," her father assured her.

"I'd like to think so, but what if all this is just a ruse? A trap?"

"Do you honestly believe that, Shay?" he asked her, sympathetically.

"It's a possibility."

"Yes, it is. But highly unlikely. We've confirmed that it is a prison that is holding Thanagarian prisoners. Besides, if it is, we'll kick their scaly behinds back to Gordania anyway."

She had to chuckle at that. Her father knew how to ease her tensions. "Yes we will," she agreed. "But I think their homeworld's called Karna, not Gordania."

"I call it Sludge Pool," he retorted playfully.

"Agreed. It will be known as Sludge Pool from now on."

"At least between the two of us," he added with a chuckle.

Shayera leant back in her chair, her mood turning sour once more. "Do you think we'll win this war?"

Her father was firm in his response. "Yes, we will win this war."

"What about the Citadel?"

"What about them?" he asked back. "We know of their existence, but as to their true connection with the Gordanians, that is something we have yet to discover. If they are helping the Gordo's, then they will be dealt with once the Gordo's have been blasted back to the swamp they came from. And Shayera, I don't want to hear any more negativity from you. We will win. We are better trained, smarter and superior."

Shayera nodded in half-hearted agreement.

Her father noticed her lack of enthusiasm. "Everything alright?"

She nodded again, this time with more vigour. "Just some pre-battle nerves, nothing to worry about."

"Good. We still have a long way to go until we arrive. I suggest you catch some rest."

"Understood, Sir."

He stood up and saluted. "I will see you in ten hours for the briefing. Dismissed."

She saluted back as she left his office.

* * *

Sleep had not come easily for Shayera. After four hours of intermittent slumber, she had given up and headed to the hangar bay, where she thoroughly inspected all six transports that would be dropping off the troops and the fighters which would be offering air support. Three of which were hers and the other three were for another team.

Everything was up to scratch and the mechanics; whose job it was to keep them up and running, seemed competent, though she hadn't been particularly concerned about it in the first place. She was simply restless before the mission, which was common with her.

It wasn't that she was necessarily afraid. It was more that she wanted to be out there fighting. The waiting always dragged on much longer than it had any right to. Hro was there and he needed her, all of the prisoners did and she would ensure they got out to fight another day.

Shayera left the hangar bay and headed up to the officer's mess hall, where she grabbed herself a reconstituted meal that was little more than slop. She sat down alone in the nearly empty room and slowly ate it.

Once she was finished, she sat back and watched two officers as they sat and chatted about something. They were speaking fairly quietly so she couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Shayera unsheathed her mace and ran her hand along the small engraving on the handle of a Diamond-Tailed Hawk, a large predatory bird native to Thanagar.

She hadn't used a mace in combat before. She had always used an axe, mainly because it was just what she had used. But she felt compelled to use her mother's mace as she felt it was honouring her memory.

The weapon itself from what she had learnt from what little practice she had had with it, was similar to her axe, but slightly heavier and was capable of dealing heavy blunt trauma.

Nth metal was naturally lighter, despite its density. If it had been made of any other material, her mace would probably have weighed upward of a quarter ton due to how dense it was. But the properties of the metal were nigh on incomprehensible and its full potential still hadn't been realised.

Even so, as far as she knew, Thanagarians were one of the only species in existence to be able to harness the metal and mould it into weaponry.

But the war had resulted in the complex manufacture of Nth metal weapons shrinking drastically. It was strange, but one would think it would increase production, but the issue was resources. Mining Nth metal was dangerous at the best of times and the Gordanians had made an effort to seek out and destroy all mining operations they could.

It was a minor inconvenience. The war might be hitting turbulence right now, but the Thanagarian people would come back strong. They would never lay down their weapons and they would fight to the last.

Today the Gordanians would know the fury of the Thanagarian people. She would ensure the prisoners were not only rescued but that the Gordanians would pay for it.

Lieutenant Shayera Hol vowed that many of her enemies would meet their end by her mother's mace.

* * *

Hours later, after they had gone through a rather lengthy and thorough briefing, Shayera was stood at the airlock that led into the hangar bay while her troops moved past her, all of them marching to the troop transports. Once the last one had gone past, she brought up the rear and was the last one to climb inside.

These troop transports were much larger than the ones on her old ship, the _Integrity_. These ones could hold up to fifty troops each, not a mere twenty as she was used to. She hadn't disembarked a ship with so many others before, which she assumed would make for an interesting combat drop.

While all of the soldiers were armed with Nth weapons, they also had different unit types, such as long range, explosives, and one that held a hefty looking missile launcher, though there were six missile units spread out across six of the nine transports.

Shayera moved up to the single seat that lay just behind the cockpit and sat down.

As she was buckling herself in, she felt it. A familiar sensation she got when a ship left hyperspace. They were at their destination, which meant they would be deployed in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.

She received an ETA update over her earpiece and relayed it to her troops. "Thirty seconds and we're going to be dropping."

She looked to the others. All of them seemed calm and ready for combat. She herself looked the same on the outside. On the inside, however, her heart was hammering in her chest.

This was it. After two days travel, they were finally here. Or at least they would be in the next few seconds.

The pilot gave his report. "Ten seconds," he reported.

"Everyone get ready for the drop," she said loudly.

Seconds later, the rail their transport hung from extended out of the back of the _Warhawk_. From here, Shayera could see forward out of the cockpit. Four Gordanian ships were visible and they were headed their way.

Then the lurch came and she got the sense of vertigo before the artificial inertial compensator's kicked in to stop them being slammed into the top of the transport as the craft accelerated hard down into the atmosphere of the planet.

Shayera forced her breathing to be steady as the transport began to shake from the turbulence of the rising atmospheric pressure. Glancing towards the front of the craft, she could see the glow outside the cockpit window, where the fast moving shuttle was forcing its way through the atmosphere, causing it to heat up and emit the fiery glow.

The pilot informed her of the ETA. "One minute."

She nodded "Understood," she acknowledged as she gripped the handle of her mother's mace hard, before wrapping and securing the wrist strap on her arm.

She then stood up and gripped the overhead grab rail with her left hand. She spoke to the pilot. "Put me through to the whole squadron."

He acknowledged, "Yes, Lieutenant."

Shayera addressed everyone. "Listen up. We'll be heading out into battle shortly. Remember why we're here. We're here to free our comrades and bring them home safe. Our first objective is to destroy all AA defences so our transports can get us in closer. We could be facing a ten minute flight just to get to the place. Remember to keep low and to keep your eyes peeled for the enemy. See any on approach and you report it, understood."

"Yes, Sir," they all shouted.

She smiled. "ETA?" she questioned the pilot.

He reported, "Fifteen seconds."

"Everyone on your feet!" she commanded.

This was finally it. They were going in, one team of three.

The back door opened and Shayera made her way to the front.

"Let's go to battle!" she shouted as she led the charge and jumped out of the back, the others close behind.

She looked around at the two-hundred troops from four different transports and smiled. This was just team one. Over-all there were three teams at three different locations totalling in twelve-hundred Thanagarian troops. More than enough to deal with these Gordanians.

"Follow me!" she shouted as she led the way.

The battle would find them soon and she couldn't wait to get some payback for her crewmates that had died on her old ship.

They would be avenged, she would make sure of it.


	5. HG:Y1:E01:Ch05

**Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter Five**

The sound of an alert klaxon took the prisoners by surprise. While they had no idea what was happening due to them being completely cut-off, it didn't stop them from speculating and making assertions.

Hro listened to what was said. The most common was that the alert was because prisoners in one of the other camps in the compound had escaped.

It was possible. Hro knew that there were at least three other large holding areas in this prison camp alone and he had reason to suspect that this wasn't the only encampment on the planet.

If the prisoners of another holding area had managed to free themselves, then he hoped they would have the foresight to come free them as well.

Their plan had been to free themselves when the Gordanians came for him again. They had managed to weaken the inner door enough to break it down and force their way out when the outer door was opened. With some luck, their escape would come sooner.

The other thought on why the alert was sounding was that help had finally arrived and they were going to be rescued and taken home.

Hro hoped it was more the latter, but he wasn't one to put too much faith in hope. He had sent a message, though he hadn't been entirely sure that it had been received, let alone for them to triangulate to the signal source and to send a fleet to rescue them.

It was possible, but again, until he saw the soldiers bursting in here to free them he would remain sceptical.

For now, they would have to remain here. While the inner door had been mostly dealt with, the outer door was far too strong and resilient for them damage, let alone knock down. If they had their Nth metal weapons, then the door wouldn't have stood much of a chance, but they didn't. They only had their bare hands and even then, the lack of proper food and exercise was starting to take its toll on them.

No matter what was going on, Hro found himself becoming increasingly agitated. He wanted to be out of here, he wanted his freedom.

* * *

Shayera and her team flew in low and fast. Their first objective was to take out the anti-aircraft weapons so that the transports and fighters could get in close.

The Gordanians, of course, weren't going to make it easy. They were flying towards them with rocket packs, their weapons drawn ready to strike.

Some of the enemies pointed their staff-like laser weapons and began to shoot bolts of energy. Shayera and her squadron evaded the shots and most closed in, while ranged kept their distance and began to return fire at the Gordanians, shooting out lances of energy out of their laser rifles.

In Shayera's mind, though, the battle wouldn't truly begin until she had taken out her first enemy, which she had in her sights.

She folded her wings back to pick up speed and raised her mace. The Gordanian raised its own weapon, a nasty looking laser pistol, but she was moving too fast, not giving the lizard alien enough time to get off a single shot before her weapon had come down hard on its rocket pack as she flew over.

The Gordanian seemed surprised as it dropped out of the sky towards the ground.

Shayera paid it no mind as she struck her next target in the face, causing him to spin out of control into one of his comrades. The two of them got entangled and they too dropped from the sky.

The battle between the Thanagarian air units and the Gordanians was now in full swing. The sounds of lasers and the clashing of weapons filled the air.

With every enemy she defeated, Shayera felt more and more satisfaction. The mace felt powerful, more so than her axe ever had. She felt like she could smash through anything with it. The Gordanians didn't stand a chance and she almost felt like she could take them all by herself.

A Gordanian came in to attack. Shayera swung her mace hard, but the creature dodged and swung its own two-handed weapon. Her mace clashed hard against the creatures battle-axe and she almost lost her grip on it. She quickly rotated her body and used her feet to push off against her opponent, separating them.

"Pathetic!" the Gordanian snarled.

Before she could respond, another Gordanian came in to attack, but instead of striking her, his face met her mace. As the lizard spun away down to the ground far below, the battle-axe wielding Gordanian came in with a hard swing that nearly took her head off.

Lucky for Shayera, the manoeuvre left him open and she struck his chest with her mace, knocking the wind out of him. She didn't wait until he recovered and smashed his rocket pack with her mace causing him to fall from the sky like so many others.

Shayera watched him fall, before flying on to her next target. It was almost disappointing that he had met his demise like that. He had offered somewhat of a challenge and now he was just another defeated enemy.

* * *

General Hol sat on the bridge of his ship. The fleet of eight Thanagarian ships was engaged in battle with the Gordanian ships and they were making short work of them.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the point of view, they had managed to get out a distress call, which meant more would be on the way. For the general, he welcomed more Gordanians to the fight. Four ships had proven to not be satisfying.

"Enemy ship destroyed," came the report from the tactical officer.

"How many does that leave?" General Hol asked.

"Only one left and they are attempting to flee."

"Like the cowards they are," Hol commented. "Do not let them."

"They have no chance. Their shields have collapsed and their reactor has sustained critical damage." There was a brief pause. "Enemy ship destroyed."

"With more potentially on the way," General Hol said with a smirk.

"The Gordos don't stand a chance, Sir."

He turned to his tactical officer. "And they say we're losing this war."

He stood up and made his way to the communications officer, who stood at his station on the left-side of the bridge. "What's the news of the surface battle?" he asked.

"Going well on all fronts. Team-Two has broken through and is on approach to destroy the aircraft guns on their side of the prison facility, while Team-One is facing more resistance. Team-Three has run into a weather front on the south side, but are pushing through it and should be clear within the next few minutes."

He nodded and returned to his seat. This battle was going well, very well. At this rate, they would be done and on their way home well before the day's end.

* * *

Back on the planet, the battle was fierce, with warriors being lost on both sides.

A missile streaked towards the facility, fired from one of the Thanagarian missile troop's and it flew straight and hit the anti-aircraft gun, engulfing it in a fiery explosion. A second missile soon followed, destroying not only the gun, but the platform it was stood on as well.

Shayera pointed with her mace. "Onwards!" she yelled. "Don't let up. Show them how fierce Thanagarian warriors can be!"

Her words were punctuated as more missiles flew, destroying a second AA gun.

A second wave of Gordanians emerged from the structure and flew towards them on their rocket packs. Shayera almost felt sorry for them. While The Gordanians generally had an edge in space combat, here in the air, the Thanagarians had the edge. They were more manoeuvrable and better trained.

"Let's bust some more skulls," Shayera yelled as she led the charge yet again.

The Thanagarian forces and the Gordanian forces met once more in battle.

From afar it looked like a swarm, with the odd body falling from beneath towards to ground below. Though those dropping from the sky were mostly Gordanians.

While the two sides fought, the Thanagarian missile troopers slipped around and fired at the remaining aircraft guns, destroying them.

Without aircraft suppression, the fighters came in and the Thanagarian wingmen pulled back, while the Gordanians were blasted from the sky.

With the second wave dealt with, Shayera led her forces into the prison.

* * *

General Hol was happy with the report. All the teams had now entered the structures. If things kept going as they were, they would be out of here within the next two hours, perhaps sooner.

But things rarely went the way one expected or even hoped.

The tactical officer spoke up, "General, a hyperspace exit point is forming and it's substantial."

The general leant forward in his seat. "Get all ships to form up. Looks like we're getting a Gordo dreadnought for company."

Just as he had said, a large ship that dwarfed theirs emerged with two much smaller destroyers at its side.

The battle in orbit had started anew.

* * *

Lieutenant Shayera Hol led the way, bludgeoning any Gordanians that happened to get in reach of her mace.

The group were walking down the narrow corridors, which seemed to have been designed to work against the Thanagarians. But it didn't work as intended.

The winged soldiers pushed their way through the enemy, the fight fierce and brutal. Both sides gave it their all, but the Gordanians had lost too many and their forces were far too few to hold them back.

After the last Gordanian in the area fell, Shayera turned to her team. "Split up into groups and search the whole complex. Report if you find any prisoners and take them to the transports."

They saluted and headed off, while a group of four offered to stay with her. She accepted and they pushed on.

* * *

The prisoners in Hro's camp had all heard the explosions and the echoes of war-cries of their comrades. It was obvious to them now that help had indeed come and their stay here was now limited. Or they hoped it was. It was entirely possible that the rescue would fail.

A dull deep metallic thud echoed through the camp. All of their attention turned to the steel door where the sound emanated.

Was this it? Was this their rescue? Hro still tried to keep his hopes and expectations in check.

There was another deep thud and the door buckled slightly. Everyone moved as far away as the could, just in case the door flew off its hinges. With a third strike it did just that and flew through the inner door, sending them both flying.

Stood there at the opening was a woman in typical military attire and red hair. She gripped a mace in both hands having clearly used it to smash the door open.

Hro daren't believe it was her. She was dead, she had died along with everyone else.

"Hro?" she asked, stepping forward.

"Shayera?" he asked right back, recognising her voice, but still unsure whether he believed it.

She stepped inside, troops close behind. While they began to lead out the prisoners, she wrapped her arms around him.

Hro ignored the pain from his frequent beatings and hugged her back.

She spoke, her voice quivering, "I thought you were dead. When I heard you were alive-" She stopped and hugged him tighter.

"I thought you were dead too," he replied. "It's good to see you came for me."

"Of course I did," she said, looking into his eyes, while he looked back into hers.

She ran her hand down his scarred face "I'll make them pay," she whispered.

"No," he said. "We'll make them pay together."

Shayera leant forwards as did Hro and their lips met. They kissed passionately and hungrily. After several moments they parted and Shayera looked at him once more.

"Let's get out of here," she said.

* * *

The battle in orbit wasn't going well. While both Gordanian destroyers had been destroyed, the heavy dreadnought was proving to be a lot more difficult.

Out of eight ships, they had lost three. The rest were looking worn down, with scarred hulls from the battle. The dreadnought looked the same and it was only a matter of time before the battle ended. One way or the other.

A report came from the communications officer, "General, the prisoners have been rescued."

"Good," General Hol responded. "Unfortunately until we deal with this dreadnought, there's nothing we can do. They'll have to stay down there."

"It won't be long," the tactical officer reported. "We've broken through their defences. Their hull won't last long."

"But neither will we," the general pointed out.

As if to emphasise his words, another Thanagarian ship erupted into a fireball as it broke apart.

"Did they manage to get out any life pods?" the general demanded.

The communications officer replied, "Unsure, Sir."

"No," the tactical officer clarified. "They wouldn't have had time to evacuate."

General Hol kept his cool. "Focus on destroying that Gordo dread. We can worry about licking our wounds later."

"Sir," the tactical officer said, his voice raised more than usual.

"What?" Hol demanded.

"Their frontal devastator cannon is charging up for a discharge."

The helmsman then added, "They're altering course. They're going to fire on the prison facility on the surface."

The general knew that everyone down there would be killed if they allowed that to happen. Right now, there were over a thousand kinsmen down there, including his daughter.

"Can we stop it?" Hol demanded.

The tactical officer answered, "There's a shield door covering the weapon."

"I know that," Hol said in frustration. "When they fire, the door opens. That's our chance."

"Sir, that could cause a feedback, which would not only destroy that ship, but all of ours as well."

"We have to take the risk," he said. "Helm, give us a vantage point of the main weapon. I want all our missiles flying as soon as they reach maximum charge. They need to be hitting the weapon as the blast door opens."

The helmsman glanced backwards. "They're trying to outrun us so they fire before we can get into position."

"Don't let them!" the general exclaimed loudly. "Burn the engines out if you have to, just keep us ahead of them."

"Understood, Sir."

General Hol held his breath. He knew they had to stop that gun from firing, he just didn't know if they could.

"In position," the helmsman reported.

"They're reaching the apex of their charge," the tactical officer reported.

"Fire all weapons!" the general commanded.

His order was carried out. A beam of energy burst forth from the front of Gordanian ship but was quickly silenced as missiles and laser fire struck, destroying the weapon.

However, it didn't end there.

A cascade of explosions began to work their way backwards along the dreadnought, leading towards the final crescendo.

Knowing what was to come, he gave the order to get them out of there. But it was too late and the reactor of the vast Gordanian ship overloaded and the ship exploded, engulfing what remained of the Thanagarian fleet.

* * *

All the prisoners were out of the facility when a stunted beam of energy came from the sky in a bright flash. It struck the facility with enough force to cause a small shockwave, knocking everyone off of their feet.

As quickly as it had come, it was gone.

Then a second flash erupted in the darkening sky from somewhere in orbit. They all stared up at it, knowing that whatever it was, it had been quite large. Larger than any ship they had in their fleet.

Hro spoke. "A Gordanian Super Dreadnought," he commented.

"Most likely," Shayera said. "Which means heavy casualties," she added suddenly feeling apprehensive.

She quickly ran up to the nearest transport. Currently, there were twelve of the fifty-man and twenty-four of the twenty-man transports, which meant they had nearly two-hundred too many to get up to a ship as there had been more prisoners than they had initially thought.

Shayera spoke to the pilot. "You start taking people up as soon as possible, understood?"

"Yes, Sir," he acknowledged.

She knew she should call the _Warhawk_ beforehand, but she had a bad feeling. One she was too afraid to confirm. Putting the bad thoughts out of her mind, she focused on getting the former prisoners into the transports, before heading back to where Hro and a group of his fellow inmates stood.

"You should get onto a transport," Shayera told him.

He shook his head. "I'll go up when you go up."

"You need medical attention," Shayera urged. "You should be on one of the first transports up there."

"No," he said again more forcefully. "Not until everyone else is off-world."

Shayera gave up. It had been a long day and she was tired. "I won't argue, I know how belligerent you can be." She turned to his comrades. "How about you?"

A woman spoke up, "we stay with Commander Talak."

"And you are?" Shayera questioned.

"Paran Dul," she answered coldly.

"It's too bad," Shayera said. "You're leaving."

Paran and the twenty-odd with her folded their arms in defiance.

"Go," Hro said to them. "I will be up soon."

Paran hesitated before saluting. She then led the group away. Once they had climbed into the back of a transport, Shayera turned to Hro. "What's her problem?"

"She and the others are loyal to me."

"Why's that?"

"I took their punishments for them," Hro explained.

"You shouldn't have done that," Shayera said. "You could have died."

"I'm a commander, Shay. It's my job to try and protect my men."

"Your job as a prisoner of war is to try and stay alive," she rebuked.

"Believe me, Shay. Staying alive was my goal. I needed to stay alive to ensure that the Gordanians will die," he said, looking past her at the transports which were now taking off and shooting into the sky. "I never saw it before, but we need to destroy them Shayera. We need to destroy them or they will destroy us. No matter what, we need to win this war."

"We can worry about that later," Shayera said. "Right now we need to focus on getting off this world before more Gordanians show up."

"If they do, then we will die fighting."

Shayera went silent. She didn't like the idea of all this being for nothing. Nevertheless, he was right, they would all fight to the last man had fallen.

The two remained quiet as they watched the transports return. The remainder of them climbed aboard the craft and they took off, heading into the sky.

As they left the atmosphere, Shayera felt fatigue start to set in. A lot had happened today and she hadn't had proper sleep. She slumped back in her seat, waiting for them to get back to the _Warhawk_.

She felt the jolt as the transport touched down in the hangar bay. As soon as she set foot on the deck she realised they weren't on the _Warhawk._

"Lieutenant Hol," a voice called out.

She looked over to the source of the voice. "Lieutenant Maran," he said introducing himself. "The commander wants to speak with you."

"Why aren't we on the _Warhawk?"_ Shayera questioned.

"That's for the commander to say. Now if you'll follow me."

Shayera began to feel very uneasy. Her thoughts immediately went to the worst outcome, which she desperately hoped were not true.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to see Hro stood next to her, offering her some emotional support.

She turned back to Lieutenant Maran, then back to Hro.

"I'll be fine, Shayera," he told her. "You go see the commander."

"Lead the way then, Maran," she said.

She followed him out of the hangar bay and through the airlock.

As they walked through the corridors of the ship, she couldn;t help but notice bent bulkheads and missing access panels, exposing damaged circuits.

By the time they reached the commander's office, she was feeling apprehensive. There was only one reason why they hadn't returned to the _Warhawk_ , and it was a reason she didn't want to think about.

Shayera stepped inside the office and stood at attention while the commander filled out a report. The woman looked up at her after a few moments and gestured to the chair.

"Sit down," she commanded.

Shayera did so silently.

"Welcome to my ship the _Winged Fury_ , I'm Commander Naret" she said. Shayera said nothing. "The mission is somewhat of a success," the commander continued. "Though whether Command will agree is another matter."

Shayera rested her hands on her knees. "Sorry, Commander, but you will have to explain."

"Only three ships made it out, including this one."

Shayera held her breath, already knowing what was going to be said.

Commander Naret continued, "The _Winged Fury_ , the _Hunters Eye,_ and the _Talon_ are the only ships that made it."

The news hit Shayera hard, even though she had been expecting it. This mission had resulted in her exchanging one loved one for another. Sure she shared a completely different kind of love for her father than she did for Hro, but he was still incredibly important to her. His death was significant, more so since this meant both her mother and father were now gone. Taken from her by the Gordanians.

The commander continued, "Altogether we lost more people than we saved," she concluded.

Shayera stood up without being given permission. "Is that all, Commander?"

"No it isn't," she said. Shayera hesitated. "I think we can continue later," the commander continued, "after you've gotten some rest. You can go."

"Thank you, Commander Naret."

Shayera turned to leave.

"One last thing, Lieutenant," Naret spoke up. Shayera turned back to face her. "How is Commander Talak?"

"Wounded and scarred. But no Gordo's going to beat him, no matter what they do to him. He's strong. All this will do is make his resolve more firm. He's a survivor."

"I hope so. We lost a lot of good men today, including your father. Let's hope this was worth it. Dismissed."

Shayera left the commander's office without another word and headed straight to the medical ward to see if Hro was there or if he had been dismissed.

She entered the med bay and was directed to where he was, sat on a raised med bed.

He looked at her as she approached. She reached for her helmet and removed it as she sat next to him.

"How are you?"

"There are some internal injuries," he said. "They should heal, along with my wings. The scars though will be there forever."

Shayera gently ran her hand down the side of his face. "A reminder," she said. "A reminder of how dead every Gordo in existence will be by our hands."

He smiled. "We will stop them. I had a long time to think while I was their prisoner. With the help of Paran Dul and some others, I think I have a plan that might work. A plan that may just cripple the Gordanian forces."

That surprised her. "You do?"

"Yes. I can't discuss it here and it will take a long time to implement. Years in fact."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will work," Shayera said confidently. "We will crush their spines in our fists and grind them into dust."

"They will be annihilated," Hro said in almost a growl. "For every one of us they have killed, for every single Thanagarian colony they have pillaged or destroyed, we will have our revenge."

"Retribution," she added, her thoughts falling on her dead father.

"Retribution," he agreed.


	6. HG:Y1:E01:Ch06

**Episode 01**

 **War**

 **Chapter Six**

The journey back to Thanagar had been uneventful, but after everything that had happened, it was welcome. After they were debriefed, Shayera was sent home while Hro remained in a military hospital while his injuries were treated.

It didn't take her long on her frequent visits to start to realise that something wasn't quite right. Something in him had changed. He didn't smile nearly as much and there was a darkness behind his eyes. It wasn't for another week until she understood why.

Part of the way the Gordanians had sought to break him was to show him footage of them destroying and pillaging Thanagarian worlds.

Watching the children die and not being able to do anything had been tough. To know that it had already happened and that the innocence had already been slain. It ground him down but didn't break him. Instead, it gave him the conviction, the will to do anything it took to stop them. No matter what.

When not in the hospital with Hro, Shayera spent time at home awaiting her next assignment, wondering if she would get one. She made frequent calls and requests but they seemed to go unanswered.

During this time, Derius helped a lot. He had always been there for her, more than her parents had ever been, mainly due to the war. This time was no different. He offered her emotional support and helped her pick herself up when she was feeling down, especially now that her father was now dead.

The worse thing was that she wasn't unique. Most had lost both parents to the fighting. It was just the way the war was. She knew it shouldn't be this way. What was worse that she knew that the reverse was also far too common. Too many parents losing their children, parents that were too old to start again.

In a lot of ways, that was more tragic. A family lineage come to an end, broken and destroyed.

After several weeks of visiting Hro and spending time at home making inquiries, Shayera finally received an assignment. Unfortunately, it once again here on Thanagar. This time, instead of teaching recruits at the recruitment centre, she was given a different teaching job. One where she would help train agents that were to be sent behind enemy lines to conduct espionage.

Espionage had been her first real role in the military and it was something she had five long years of experience in, starting from when she was just twenty-one.

It wasn't something that was glamorous. It involved many sleepless nights where she had to remain awake just so she wasn't discovered, to get intelligence that may not even prove useful in the end.

Espionage was also a largely thankless job, or at least it had been for her. She had gotten one medal and that was when she had found the location of a shipyard building a small fleet of new super-dreadnoughts. Thanks to her actions, that fleet of ships were never completed.

But that was all in the past now.

At first, she disliked her new teaching role, but after a few weeks she fell into it and after a month she even started to enjoy it.

It wasn't until ten months had passed that she suddenly received a call from Hro. She was being reassigned, though the specifics were not divulged to her.

The instructions she got were simple. She was to report to him in two days.

* * *

Thick clouds covered the sky and deep thunder rumbled through the air. Rain fell hard, making it unpleasant for anyone flying with just their wings on their back.

Shayera sat in the small shuttle as it approached the military base where Hro was stationed. The last time she had seen him in person, he had still been feeling the after-effects of Gordanian hospitality. She looked forward to seeing him again, though was anxious as to the mission he had alluded too.

The shuttle landed on a pad and she was escorted into the building and along a corridor and into a room where Hro was waiting.

He was wearing typical military garb and a flared helmet. He looked at her with a smile. "Good to see you again."

"You too," she said back, moving in close. "I was hoping we'd get to see more of each other."

"Sorry Shay, I've been busy," he said regretfully. He gestured back the way she had come. "Follow me."

"Okay, lead the way."

The two of them headed out of the building and to a small transport shuttle. They climbed in and Hro took the controls, Shayera sitting beside him.

"Are we going somewhere?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said with a small smile.

The shuttle rose up off of the platform and headed up into the sky. Shayera looked out the cockpit windshield as the city turned to wilderness far below them.

She sat back in her seat and simply enjoyed the view.

Thirty minutes later, she began to grow restless.

"Are we going somewhere in particular?" she asked him.

"You'll see Shay. It won't be long now."

Shayera wasn't really a fan of surprises. She liked to know her destination before she got there.

She looked out of the windshield to see if she could get any inkling of where it was they were headed. As they moved up over the peak of a mountain she saw it ahead. A place she had seen in images, but had never been to.

Magnificence Valley.

Why he had brought her here eluded her. Still, it was a nice gesture bringing here to see what was considered the most beautiful place on Thanagar.

Hro slowed the shuttle down and hovered over a clearing. The side hatch opened and he stood up, holding out his hand for Shayera. She reached for it and he helped her up. They both walked over to the open hatch and he stopped, turning to her.

"Follow me," he said as he jumped out and spread out his now fully healed wings.

Shayera was close behind and they flew over the valley, both looking down at the various waterfalls that cascaded down from Lake Magnificence, the biggest lake on the planet.

She continued to follow all the way to the ancient ruin of a long abandoned temple. Hro landed on top of the structure, Shayera landing beside him and the both looked out at the view.

Hro spoke softly as they stared out. "There's a reason this place is called what it is," he said, before looking at Shayera. He reached for her helmet and slowly removed it. "But its magnificence is nowhere near your beauty."

She reached for his helmet, but he stopped her. "No," he said.

"Your scars don't bother me," she said. "In fact, they prove to me how strong you are."

He released his grip and allowed her to remove it. They both stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally Hro broke the silence. "I brought you here for a reason," he said. "There is a mission. One that requires a soldier going to a distant world. This mission will require this soldier to be cut off from Thanagar for an extended period of time. The partaking in this mission is someone I trust to get the job done."

"You want me to be this soldier," she concluded.

"Yes," he said with a grim nod. "The mission means you will be alone on an alien world with no contact for what could be years."

"That seems a little extreme," she said, her mind beginning to race. Did he really want her to leave? To head off to some alien world? Especially after months of not seeing each other. It seemed so strange, so odd.

"The mission will be delicate," he told her. "But it is necessary."

"Okay," she said hesitantly. "But there has to be more to it than that."

"There is, but there is a great deal I cannot tell you, Shay."

"I suppose I can understand that," she said, feeling a little overwhelmed. "But couldn't all of this have been said back at the base?"

He nodded. "Yes, but that's not the only reason we're out here. A promise needs to be made, a promise that I will come for you." He looked out towards the lake, before looking back into her eyes. "Once this mission is over, will you be my wife?" he asked her.

She looked at him in shock. She had wanted to hear those words come from his lips for so long. To have him speak them now was almost surreal.

"Of course I will," she said, a huge smile spreading across her face.

Hro smiled back, but it faltered.

Shayera grew concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I know being sent on a mission alone isn't something you want, but it's important."

Shayera reached up and rested her index finger against his lips to shush him. "I'll do what I must for Thanagar. You know that."

He nodded, his smile shining true. "We will be joined in marriage once it is over and we will celebrate the union over the corpses of our enemies."

"I'll hold you to it," she said.

In truth she wasn't happy with the prospect of being sent to some alien world, especially when she had no idea what the mission was. She hoped she would be more at ease after more had been explained. After all, she wasn't going to be able to do anything if she had no clue as to what it was she was doing.

As if reading her mind, he gripped her hands and said, "A full briefing will be issued beforehand and you will be given intel on everything we know of the world. It isn't much, but hopefully, it will be useful to you."

"Hopefully," she said.

They both looked out across the lake until the sun began to set, washing the sky a bright orange. It was then that Hro told her they needed to get back.

* * *

Shayera awoke at home in her bed. It was a few days since their trip to Magnificence Valley and today was the big day.

She glanced over to the empty spot in the bed next to her and felt confused by Hro's absence. The two of them had spent the night together, or at least she had assumed. He had been here when she had fallen asleep.

Thinking that he must be downstairs, Shayera climbed out of bed and got dressed. As she did so, her mind fell onto what had happened yesterday.

It had started with a briefing on the mission, which had been confusing and mostly uninformative. Shayera knew the planet she was going to was called Earth. She knew that it was a world with a single intelligent technologically backwards species that still warred with itself.

The data they had was also out of date by nearly thirty years and was second-hand information at that as it had been purchased from foreign information brokers.

No Thanagarian had been to this world, not that they knew of, and she didn't see why any would want to go, especially when it seemed the world was on the verge of a nuclear holocaust. Or rather had been thirty years ago. It could be nothing but a radioactive wasteland now for all she knew.

The other thing she knew was that her mission was to acquire data on defences and gain the confidence and trust of the people while not disclosing that she was on a secret mission.

It all seemed suspect to her, but she trusted Hro and his motives. If he thought this mission was important, then she would do it. Her world was important to her and if there was a possibility that this could help, even if she couldn't see it, she had the obligation to try.

Not that she had a choice. She was a soldier and she had to obey orders no matter what. This was just another mission to complete, albeit one where she clearly didn't have all the information.

Hro had given her some odd instructions for going in today. She wasn't to go there in her uniform, so instead she had decided that she would go in her mother's outfit.

She headed downstairs, where she found Derius cleaning the floor.

"Have you seen Hro?" she asked him.

"He stepped out and said he would be back before you woke."

"Clearly that didn't happen," she said. "Do you know where he went?"

"No, I don't, sorry. Would you like some breakfast?"

"Sure, but I'm going to wash first."

"I'll have it ready for when you're done."  
"Thanks, Derius," she said as she headed back upstairs.

She grabbed a shower, then headed back to the bedroom where she grabbed her mother's armour,flared helmet and mace before heading downstairs where she found Derius had made her breakfast, just like he'd said.

She took in a deep breath and grinned. He had made her boiled Korschian Oysters. While not typically a breakfast food, Shayera loved them, especially first thing in the morning.

"Thank you very much," she said as she put the cuirass and helmet on the side.

Derius watched her put them down. "Those were your mothers," he said.

"Yes, I'm going to be wearing them," she explained to him.

"Your mother would be very happy," he said. "I think she would enjoy seeing you in that armour."

"I hope so," she said.

"I know she would and so would your father."

Shayera simply nodded solemnly as she took a bite of her breakfast. A huge smile spread across her face. No matter her mood, Korschian Oysters always put a smile on her face.

A sudden knock at the door got both of their attention.

"I will see who it is," Derius said as he moved off while Shayera continued to eat her breakfast.

Moments later he returned with Hro. She smiled at him. "You didn't get back before I woke."

"No," he said back, before noticing what she was eating. "Oysters for breakfast?" he asked.

"Korschian Oysters," she corrected. "And they're delicious."

"I knew you liked them, but for breakfast?"

She picked up the last oyster and pulled out the flesh that lay in the shell and ate it with a bug grin. "Tasty," she added after swallowing it down.

"I suppose everyone has their foibles," Hro commented.

Shayera stood up and grabbed her mother's armour and put it on, tightening the straps on the side, before adorning the flared helmet onto her head.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Good," he said.

"These were my mothers," she told him.

"She would be honoured," he said. "We should be heading off soon. You have a busy day ahead of you."

Shayera turned to Derius who had stood quietly in the corner. "Goodbye Derius. I'm not sure when I'll be back. It might not be for a long time."

"Do not worry. I'll keep this place just as you left it."

She nodded as both she and Hro left the house.

They walked across to where the transport waited for them. They climbed into the back and sat on the bench. The craft promptly took off and headed east to their destination.

As they had a good hour, Shayera decided to see if there was anything else regarding the mission Hro was willing to give up.

"Hro," she began, "can I ask you something about this mission?"

He looked at her. "Hmmn?" he asked.

"The mission, I don't feel like I have all the information."

"You don't," he put simply. "But the less you know the better. For your own safety."

"Hro-"

"No," he interrupted, shaking his head. "You know all you need to know to complete the mission."

"I can understand that. But I feel like I don't know anything about what my mission is. We barely know anything about this world apart from its primitive. How can such a backwards world possibly be of any value?"

She noticed him clench his jaw. "I know it seems-" He paused, before finishing his thought. "I know it's strange and I want to tell you, but I am under orders."

"This is me we're talking about, Hro."

"I know, Shay. All I can tell you is that this might lead to us being able to defeat the Gordanians."

"But from what I could see, they're so primitive."

"Sometimes a primitive can defeat the advanced," he said, sounding oddly poetic.

Feeling that she wasn't going to get any further answers about her mission, she dropped it.

* * *

Shayera stood in front of the vast machine and stared at it. She then turned her attention to Hro, trying to take in what she had just been told.

"I thought I was going to Earth in a ship?"

"No, that might be discovered," Hro told her. "This way is better."

She stared up at the giant device. It was intimidating and she could feel the thrum of energy that ran through thick conduits.

"So this is some kind of teleporter?" she asked.

Another Thanagarian dressed in a dirty tunic, obviously, some engineer stepped up to them with a device.

The engineer looked at her and answered her question. "No, it's more of a hyperspace relay," he explained. "Oh, I am Tacet Gol, the head of this project."

She looked back up at it. "Wait, if we have something like this, then why aren't we using it?"

Tacet answered, "We are. Currently, we're using it to send agents behind enemy lines."

"So why not armies?"

Tacet snorted as though she had just asked a profoundly stupid question. "Just to send one uses almost eight-hundred-thousand gigawatts of energy and burns out half of the components and that's just to transport one person across space. An army using this technology would use an obscene amount. And lets not forget it's a one-way trip."

"So armies are out of the question," she said, keeping her gaze on it.

"Yes. At least right now it is. The amount of energy required to-"

"Tacet," Hro said in a warning tone. "You're here for one thing. To get her to Earth."

"Yes, right Commander, of course." Tacet gestured to a hatch on the machine. "If you would go inside."

Shayera stepped up to it and pulled open the hatch looking inside. It was pretty small, small enough for it to aggravate her claustrophobia and she hadn't even stepped into the thing yet.

From the ceiling of the small chamber were three emitters of some kind, each pointing towards the centre of the chamber and the floor had a circular pad that seemed to pulsate.

"Please step inside," Tacet instructed.

Shayera turned to look at Hro. He smiled sadly at her. She moved over to him and wrapped her arms around him. Their lips locked and they kissed passionately.

Tacet interrupted by clearing his throat rather loudly. "The charge won't hold," he informed them. "You must leave soon."

The two lovers separated and Shayera stepped into the chamber. "Goodbye," she said to him.

Hro shook his head in disagreement. "This isn't goodbye, Shay. Until we see each other again."

"Until then," she agreed.

The hatch swung closed and she found herself in complete darkness. She tried to steady her breathing, however, it was difficult.

Shayera continued to stand there in utter darkness, the machine rumbling around her. She knew it had not been a minute yet, but if felt like hours.

A dim light slowly began to fill the chamber. She looked up to see the three emitters were glowing a deep purple colour.

That's when she began to feel nauseous. The chamber around her began to spin, or maybe it was her spinning. She didn't know. All she knew was that if it didn't stop she was going to be sick.

Then a bright white light surrounded her and she lost feeling in her whole body. Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last long and was replaced by what could only be described as excruciating pain as it felt like her body was being torn apart.

Either from the pain or the process, Shayera lost consciousness.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **I hope everyone enjoyed that. That was the end of "Episode 1 - War" Next will be "Episode 2 - Earth" Each episode will be as long as it needs to tell the story. Also there will be more than just Shayera's perspective, to make it more interesting.**

 **Also, I'm going to try and only post an "Episode" when it's done. That way, you the reader, will be getting something more complete.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	7. HG:Y1:E02:Ch01

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter One****

"Heading home?" Mandy, the nurse sat behind the front desk asked.

Doctor Alison Kramer rubbed her tired eyes. "Yeah, Mandy, I'm heading home. Gotta be back here at eight, so I can't hang around."

"Is it even worth heading home?" Mandy asked. After all, eight o'clock was only in about four-and-a-half hours or so

"I gotta check on my little sister. She's home alone."

"Gotcha, good night."

"Good morning, more like," Alison said bitterly as she headed towards the main doors, only to be stopped by two police officers.

"Sorry doctor, but we've got to pat you down," the male officer said sympathetically, before gesturing to his female partner.

"I'm not sneaking anyone out if that's what you're worried about," Alison snarked.

"Just doing my job," the female cop said as she patted her down, much to Alison's annoyance, before letting her out of the door.

Alison wasted no time rushing over to the parking lot. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Preferably, she would have wanted to be home hours ago, but alas sometimes things simply didn't work out that way.

It was half-three in the morning and she was exhausted. The day had been busy thanks to a gang war that had erupted in the city between the Bandino family, who were native to Midway City and the Panessa family who were apparently a small-time family from Gotham that had moved their operation here.

A mafia war was actually quite strange in this day in age, at least to Alison. Crime families hadn't exactly been potent in the last few decades and had been losing influence and power steadily since the seventies. Russian and Asian crime syndicates had started to take over, at least to some extent, and even they weren't as powerful as the mafia had been between the prohibition of alcohol through to the late sixties.

While Gotham suffered from intense organised crime, it had been on the rise here in Midway as well as of late. Though, thankfully, it was still a far cry from what it was a few years ago when the Doom Patrol went head to head with the Brotherhood of Evil. The heroes of the Patrol had pursued the Brotherhood out of America and the two had vanished. It was assumed that they destroyed each other, that maybe the Doom Patrol had sacrificed themselves to stop the Brotherhood of Evil.

Whether that was true or not, she didn't know. All she knew was that with crime on the rise all around, they needed something to change. Metropolis had Superman, Gotham had Batman, Star City had Green Arrow and Central City had the Flash, but Midway City? It didn't have anyone right now and its history of crime was starting to reveal itself once again and there was no one here to stop it.

It would be one thing if it was only the mafia, but there was also other smaller gangs that had started to rise in power, each claiming territory on either side of Slumville, one on the east side and one on the west. They were recognisable by their colours, one blue and the other yellow and purple. Those that lived in Slumville were trapped between yellow and blue and often when fighting broke out, those that were too poor to move, were forced to endure the brunt of it.

Alison stepped up to her car, a nine year old 1990 LTD Crown Victoria and climbed inside. She turned the ignition and the engine rumbling into life. She pulled her seatbelt across her torso and fastened it, before releasing the parking break.

She drove out of the parking lot and hit the nearly empty road, heading south out of the city.

Alison lived in a suburb which was once a separate town, though was now considered part of Midway City. She lived there with her much younger sister, their parents having died because of the Brotherhood of Evil about three years ago now. They weren't the only ones not at all, but the knowledge that others had lost loved ones didn't make it any easier, in a lot of ways it made it harder.

Leaving the city behind, she drove down the lonely highway towards the suburb known as Hawk Valley, which lay on the edge of a large forested valley of the same name. The highway she drove down every morning and every night was surrounded by trees, making it a partial respite from civilisation.

She was half way between the city and the suburb when the lights of her car began to flash on and off. Concerned that her electronics were failing, she began to slow down. That's when she noticed the dials on her dashboard had also begun to move around erratically.

"What the-" she said in shock.

Without warning, the car stalled and rolled to a halt. Now she was starting to feel afraid. This wasn't normal, even if the electronics were acting up it shouldn't be behaving like this.

Alison twisted the ignition and the car wheezed but didn't start. She twisted it again only to get the same response.

"What's going on?" she questioned to no one as she pushed the car door open. She had only had it serviced a week ago. For it to just fail completely was crazy.

Things only got crazier when the wind started to pick up and rather violently as well. She shielded her face and was forced to lean forward to avoid being blown over. Then a bolt of electricity, or maybe even lightening struck the front of her car, before there was a burst of them, blue light crackling in all directions.

Alison staggered back in shock and fear. Too afraid to run, she just stood there and stared.

Then it stopped.

"What was that?" she said after a few moments, staring ahead. It wasn't at all anything like she had ever heard about let alone ever seen or experienced before.

She jumped in surprise as the headlights of her car turned back on. Slowly she moved over and climbed back in. She was just about to twist the ignition when there was a bright flash, followed by a bang, causing her to shriek in fright. Then a body flew out of seemingly nowhere and hit the tarmac with a roll.

"What is happening!?" Alison shouted out in shock as she climbed back out of the car.

She stood there staring at what appeared to be an armoured woman with wings laying in the road clearly unconscious, or maybe even dead.

At first, she was unsure what to do. Did she just leave her there on the tarmac or did she help?

"I'm going to regret this," she mumbled to herself as she slowly and cautiously made her way over to the figure in the road.

With each step, her heart pumped harder in her chest. As she stood over the body, it almost felt like her heart was going to break free it was beating so fast.

"What are you," she muttered as she squatted down and felt for a pulse. It was there and it was steady. Still, she couldn't just leave this person laying in the street.

After checking her over to make sure there were no broken bones, she scooped up the woman in her arms and struggled to pick her up. "Oh, you're heavy," she said, putting her back down.

She looked over her chest armour and found the buckle on the side, beneath her left arm. She undid it and pulled the armour off, before slowly removing her helmet. On her head underneath the helm was some kind of device, with a circuit board imprinted on it. Alison decided not to remove that in case it was connected to her head somehow.

After resting the mace next to the armour and helmet, she once again picked up the winged woman bridal style and struggled to carry her back to the car. Luckily it wasn't too far.

Awkwardly she rested the woman on the hood of the car before reaching in and unlocking the back door. She then opened it before carefully sitting the woman inside and buckling her in.

"I'm gonna give myself a hernia," she complained quietly as she pushed the door closed. She then quickly retrieved the strange woman's helm, weapon and armour, placing them in the front passenger seat then climbed inside, pulling her door shut.

She glanced in the rear view mirror at the unconscious bird-woman. "I hope you're not dangerous," she said, her voice trembling from the adrenaline that had been surging through her system since the whole ordeal began.

She didn't look dangerous, not with the wings and beautiful long red hair. She looked almost angelic like she had been sent down from high on above.

But that was crazy. Then again it wasn't any crazier than what had just happened. With her car breaking down and restarting for no reason and this woman appearing from nowhere. It was all connected somehow. How exactly she didn't know. Maybe when or if the woman woke up she would find out.

The thing that confused her the most was that the woman was clearly mammalian, but the feathered wings indicated bird. The two didn't align biologically and neither did the position of the wings. How did her muscle and bone structure in her upper back support both? Did they share muscle structure with her arms? As a doctor who knew how the human body was laid out, the winged woman certainly raised a lot of questions.

Alison started the car and drove home, careful not to take any corners too hard. She didn't want her passenger to be flung around in the back

Before long she was pulling up into her driveway. She quickly carried the woman inside and upstairs to what had once been her parent's bedroom and placed her on the bed, before quickly retrieving her belongings and putting them next to the bed.

She didn't want the woman waking up and thinking her things had been stolen. It was a risk giving her easy access to her medieval weapon, but she wanted her to feel at ease when she awoke.

Alison checked the clock on the wall. It was twenty minutes to five which meant she would get maybe an hour or two in bed before she would have to get ready for another hectic day at the hospital.

"Who's that?"

Alison looked around to see Lolita her younger sister stood at the door to the bedroom.

Lolita was seventeen going on eighteen, whereas Alison herself was thirty-four. There were around sixteen years between them, though their brother Gary was twenty-six and was right between the two. Gary was a cop in the Midway police department, while Lolita was still in high school.

"Go back to bed Loli," Alison told her. "You have school tomorrow.

"Who is it?" she asked again.

"I found her in the road between Midway and here. She fell out of some kind of portal."

Lolita's eyes went wide. "A portal?" She then frowned, folding her arms, unimpressed. "Very funny, I almost believed you. Where did she really come from?"

"Look at her Loli, she has wings. She came out of a portal."

"Wait, those things are attached to her?" Lolita questioned as she moved in closer to get a better look.

"Loli," Alison warned, struggling to keep her voice low. "Back to bed."

"I only wanna take a look." Lolita leant over and looked the winged woman in the face. "What's this thing on her head?"

"I don't know what that is," Alison said. "Now go to bed," she said louder.

Suddenly Lolita let out a yelp as she was literally thrown over the bed to the far side of the room. The unconscious winged woman was now quite conscious and was out of bed and on her feet, glancing between where Lolita lay against the wall with her legs in the air and Alison who stared in shock and fear.

"You okay Loli?" she asked, her voice starting to tremble.

"I think so," came the response as she slowly climbed to her feet, keeping a watchful eye on the woman.

The winged woman began to speak, but neither Alison nor Lolita had any clue as to what she was saying. But she sounded almost frantic.

Lolita feared for her sister. She was now on the far side of the room, blocked from her reach by the woman who stood near the centre.

The woman shouted something, causing the two of them to flinch. "I don't know what you're saying," Alison told her, her hands raised in a non-threatening manner. "Please, you were injured, I brought you here to help. We don't want trouble, I just wanted to help."

The woman spoke again, this time in a much calmer tone. Still, neither of them understood what was being said.

Alison decided to try and communicate, even though she knew they couldn't understand one another. This woman was clearly not from Earth. Or if she was, she was some kind of escaped experiment or something.

"You came out of a portal," Alison said. She then gestured to herself. "I found you and helped you."

The woman looked at her. "Help?" she repeated.

"Yes, I helped you. My name is Alison and that," she said pointing to her sister, "is Lolita. Me Alison, her Lolita."

"Shayera," the woman said.

Alison pointed. "You Shayera?"

"Me Shayera," the woman repeated, before she said, before saying something else in her strange alien language.

"We don't speak the same language," Alison said.

"Language," the woman repeated, looking from her to her sister then back again. "She's your sister," she said. "She seems a lot younger than you."

Both of the sister's mouths fell open. Alison couldn't believe it. Had she just spoken in English?

"Can you understand me?" the winged woman asked.

Alison nodded in shock. "Yeah, we can understand you." She had indeed just spoken in English. She hadn't been imagining it.

The woman reached for the device on her head and removed it. "Good. Now tell me where I am."

* * *

Shayera removed the Absorbascon before she spoke to the woman who had identified herself as Alison. "Good. Now tell me where I am."

The woman blinked. "You're in our house," she said like a simpleton.

Shayera rolled her eyes. "Planet name or designation, location on planet and settlement or city," she clarified for the dimwitted human.

"Oh," the woman said with a visible cringe. "Are you an alien?"

Shayera couldn't help herself as she answered, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "Yes. I know that this might come as a shock, but your little planet is not the only one that has people living on it."

The response, however, surprised her. "We know aliens exist," Alison said almost defensively.

"You do?" That surprised Shayera. She hadn't expected this small world to have come in contact with anyone from beyond their atmosphere.

Lolita entered the conversation. "Yeah, Superman's an alien."

"Super Man?" Shayera questioned.

"Yeah," Lolita said, "he's a superhero."

"Superhero?"

The younger human nodded. "They help people. Superman can fly and has powers. He's extremely strong, fast and can shoot lasers out of his eyes."

Shayera found all of that hard to believe. It sounded more like a made-up fairytale or legend rather than an actual person. "Is he some kind of genetically enhanced creature or something?" She questioned sceptically.

"No," Lolita said. "He's an alien from another planet."

"And he can fly? Is it mechanical or does he have wings?" Shayera asked, still not sure if she believed it.

"Neither."

"Then how does he fly?"

Lolita was about to speak when Alison cut her off. "We don't know how he just does."

Shayera wanted to rebuke their claims, but she knew she would need more information first. This Super Man, whoever or whatever it was would have to wait for now. First, she needed to get her whereabouts.

"What planet is this?" she asked the older woman.

"Earth," Alison answered.

So she had made it. However, the trip could have gone a lot smoother. She was lucky that she was found by these rather innocuous people.

"Where on Earth?" she asked them.

"United States, if that means anything to you."

Shayera knew that she couldn't reveal how much she knew about Earth, or that she was here on purpose. She knew that one large nation was in a cold war with another, though of course that information was thirty years outdated and she wasn't sure which ones. She believed however that the United States was one of those nations.

"What settlement are we in?"

"Hawk Valley on the outskirts of Midway City."

That didn't mean anything to her. At least not yet. Her mission was to find out as much as possible, to find out planetary defences, to gain the trust of the people and to discover as to whether this planet could put up a plausible fight against the Gordanians.

"I will need a map of the area," Shayera told them.

"Yeah, sure," Alison said running her hand through her dark hair. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"No. I just want to know the area I've found myself in," she told them.

"Okay, I'm sure we can do that. But if you don't mind, can it wait until later? Like tomorrow evening perhaps? My sister has school in the morning and I haven't slept in well over twenty-four hours."

"I suppose it can," Shayera said. After all, Hro had told her she might be on this world for a few years. She might as well use the time that was given to her. "I will see the both of you in the morning."

Lolita who was still in the far corner looked at her with fear in her eyes. Shayera smirked. "You can go, I won't kill you, I promise."

She didn't look any more comfortable with that statement. She moved past her slowly, keeping her eyes on her before she moved past the older woman and out of the room.

Alison began rubbing her arms, a sign of nervousness. "You can, um, stay the night if you want."

"Yes, I will. You have been helpful," Shayera said.

"Okay, goodnight then."

Shayera didn't respond and waited until the woman had pulled the door closed before she let herself relax. She raised up the Absorbascon that was still in her hand and studied it for a moment.

She hadn't really gotten a chance to look at it before she had left. This was definitely a newer model, one that was specifically designed to fit under a helmet and appeared more like a skull-cap. While it didn't have the full functionality of the older models, being slower to process information, it would still be invaluable to her and more useful.

There was, of course, the downside of using the device. Having something that forced information accumulated from others into one's head wasn't exactly healthy and could easily result in permanent brain damage if overused or abused.

This technology was also extremely confidential. She had used one before, back when she was an espionage agent. She had on one occasion been forced to destroy one when she had thought she was going to be captured by the Gordanians. Fortunately, she hadn't been, though it had been a close call.

She made sure the device was deactivated before she placed it on the small bedside cabinet. She then picked up her helmet and checked it over for damage, before doing the same with her torso armour and mace. None of them was damaged, not that she could see. Satisfied, she put them back down on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed.

This was it. She was on Earth. The mission she knew only the basics of, which boiled down to find out the planet's defensive strength while earning the trust of the populace and all without revealing why she was there, or even that she was there on purpose, was now underway.

Her cover story was already set. She was a law enforcement officer who had been tracking criminals. She had followed them to their hideout, a great fortress where an accident resulted in her being sent to Earth.

It seemed the method of her arrival and having a witness or two played into her favour. Especially considering it had not been a smooth transition from Thanagar to here. Not in the slightest.

The last thing she remembered before waking up here was the pain. It had overwhelmed her. She looked down at herself and patted herself down. She seemed to be all here. She hoped she was all here. She would hate to have lost something in transit.

She supposed she would find out. For now, she knew she should probably get some rest, but she wasn't feeling tired and also she didn't trust that she would still be here when she awoke.

While the two women appeared to be nice, she couldn't be too sure they wouldn't report her to an authority given the chance. She would have to wait and see.

Shayera then reached into her left pocket and pulled out the small multi tool and slid open the sides revealing a small screen in the middle.

The device was a multi-purpose tool and was a necessity in any espionage mission. She had used the tool before on many occasions while sneaking into fortified Gordanian complexes.

She tried to scan for an information data network but came up empty. Realising that this world either didn't have one or that it was so primitive that her device couldn't detect it, she closed it back up and put it back on her belt.

Feeling the need to at least get some idea as to where she was, she moved over to the window and pulled the curtain aside just enough to look out.

Tall lampposts lit up the damp street. There were long green lawns and two-storey houses that ran both up and down the street. In the distance, there was the city, with tall buildings and bright lights that gave the sky a yellowish hue.

She let the curtain go and it fell back into place and sat back down on the bed, resting her hands on her lap.

The question now was did she stay here in this house or leave?

She decided to stay. At least for now.

* * *

Alison couldn't sleep. Usually, the thought of having to get up in a few hours would be enough to make her restless, but having an alien in the house was what was at the forefront of her mind.

The more she thought about it, the more crazy it was to her. Not only had she met an alien, she was in her house only a few doors down the hall.

She had allowed an alien with unknown intent into her home and had put her little sister in danger because of it. What was she thinking and more importantly what did she do when it was time to head off to work? Did she leave her sister alone with a complete unknown?

If her parents were still alive, she could imagine them near having a seizure. For all she knew, the winged alien was a criminal who was escaping justice. She could have alien cops blowing up her house.

Alison knew the last thought might be going overboard, but she couldn't help it. This was possibly the most stupid thing she had ever done. But she had done it for the same reason she had become a doctor. She wanted to help people and she couldn't leave her laying on the road, not when she could have needed help.

Alison rolled over in bed one last time before she gave up. Her thoughts were too potent, too loud for her to sleep. Her throat was also dry and she needed something to drink.

Throwing the covers off, Alison climbed out of bed and headed downstairs, noticing halfway down that there was light streaming through the crack in the kitchen door.

Cautiously she approached, keeping her ears open for any sounds. It could be that she had simply left it on when she had been dealing with the then unconscious alien.

Alison carefully pushed the door open to find the alien woman, Shayera, sat at the table with a glass of water. She had put her flared bronze and black helmet back on which made her look more than a little intimidating.

"Couldn't sleep?" the alien asked.

"No," Alison answered, moving over to the cupboard to grab a glass while keeping her eye on the winged woman.

"I'd suffer from insomnia too if I had a stranger in my house. Especially one that was of an unknown quantity."

Alison felt even more uneasy than ever. "You reading my mind?"

"Don't have too. Your body language tells me everything I need to know."

With a glass in hand, Alison made her way to the sink and filled it up before sitting at the table. The other woman's gaze never left her. The only way Alison could describe it was like a hawk watching its prey.

That thought didn't make her feel any safer, especially when she noticed the mace on her hip.

"You don't need that," Alison said. "You're not in danger here."

"I don't know that," Shayera said before taking a sip of her own water.

Alison tried to pluck up the courage to ask more questions but found herself lacking. Shayera seemed to sense this.

"I'm not here to harm you. It wouldn't do me any favours."

"Right," Alison said. She raised her own glass of water and gulped it down.

"Careful, you'll drown yourself," Shayera said with half a smirk.

Alison didn't say anything. She simply put the glass back down on the table.

"Do you regret helping me?" Shayera questioned.

Alison's eyes snapped to hers. "I'm a doctor. It's my job to help people." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "In an hour I'll be heading off again, maybe for another fifteen-hour shift."

"Why are you there so much?" Shayera asked. "Are you at war?"

"If you mean a Mafia war, then yeah."

"Mafia?" Shayera questioned, not recognising the term.

"Organised crime," Alison clarified. "There are two families, the Bandino's and the Panessa's, both vying for power. The crazy thing is that five months ago, the idea of two Mafia families going at it causing mass mayhem would have made me laugh. Now, not so much."

"Why doesn't your government deal with them?"

"Because it's not that simple. I wish it were."

"Strange. On my world, it is that simple."

"This isn't your world."

"No," Shayera agreed solemnly. "It is not."

"Is there a way back?" Alison asked her. "To your world?"

"Not that I know of," Shayera said as she begun to slowly spin her glass.

Alison's sympathies went out to her. She couldn't imagine what it was like to wake up and find oneself on an alien world. To be separated from loved ones, to have absolutely no clue as to how the world worked. Just the thought terrified her.

She looked at the winged alien across from her. "I would really like to say you can stay here, but I have my little sister to worry about."

"You're worried I'm dangerous," Shayera accepted. "I am, but not to you. I've already told you that I have no reason to hurt you. But if you want me gone, then I'll go."

Alison cringed. She felt heartless. She couldn't just throw the woman out on the street. She literally had nowhere to go and she would draw attention. Perhaps the wrong kind of attention.

The doctor rubbed her tired aching eyes. "Okay, listen. Maybe you can stay here until you've found somewhere else."

"Like where?" Shayera asked poignantly.

"I don't know," Alison said. "But if people find out I'm letting an alien stay at my house, do you know what would happen?"

"I imagine it wouldn't be pleasant. I understand that you're taking a chance. I promise you that I won't stay longer than I need to. All I need is information on the area and I can figure things out from there."

Alison thought for a moment. It was in her nature to help people and Shayera's request seemed reasonable. "Okay, I'll help you. What do you need?"

"Maps would be good. Local and maybe of the whole planet. I'd like to know where it is I've found myself."

Alison stood up. "I've got both an atlas and local maps here in the house. I'll go fetch them."

She headed through into the living room where she walked up to the tall bookshelf in the far corner. She pulled out the world atlas before taking it back into the kitchen, passing it to her. "I'll go look for the local maps. I think they're in a drawer in the foyer by the front door."

Alison headed back out and pulled open the top drawer on the waist-high cabinet that lay along the side of the stairs. She rummaged through until she pulled out the map book of the city and surrounding area. She took it through and put it on the table.

"I also have a book that has the planets."

"This will be fine for now, thank you," Shayera said as she grabbed the Midway City map book.

"We're in Hawk Valley," Alison said, before clarifying with, "The suburb not the valley itself."

"So we're on the outskirts of a city."

"Yes and no," Alison said. "We're not directly attached to the city. We're almost our own town. But I do work in the city at Midway General. Speaking of which, I'll have to head off soon."

"Don't let me take up any more of your time," Shayera said.

"I'll grab a shower then.".

Shayera didn't respond as she continued to study the maps. Alison left the kitchen and headed upstairs. After she had finished with her quick shower and blow-dried her hair, she headed back downstairs to get some breakfast where she found Shayera looking through the world atlas.

Neither of them said anything to the other while Alison made some toast. It was only when she was sitting down with the jam that she realised that she should probably offer Shayera something.

"Do you want something to eat?" she asked her house-guest.

Shayera looked up. "No, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," the alien said as she looked back down at the atlas.

Alison ate her toast and had a glass of juice. She then headed upstairs and knocked on her sister's door. She waited before she knocked again. The door opened, her sister rubbing her eyes.

"You know what time it is?"

"Shayera's staying a while," she said, getting it right out there. "I don't want you bothering her. If you feel you're in danger don't hesitate to call me on your cell."

Lolita's eyes went wide. "What!? You mean that wasn't a crazy dream?"

"No, it wasn't a dream, Loli," Alison said with a sigh. "It definitely wasn't a dream. She's downstairs looking through some maps. If she asks for something only do it if you can and if it's legal and safe to do so, Understand?"

"Yeah, I understand."

"And I still want you going to school. This isn't an excuse to skip, understand?"

"Understood."

"Good. Now I have to get off to work. See you tonight."

"Or tomorrow," Lolita mused.

"I know, I don't like it either but it's just the way it is. See you later."

"See ya."

Alison headed downstairs and grabbed her car keys. She peeked her head into the kitchen. "I hope you appreciate the risk I'm taking letting you stay here."

Shayera looked up from the atlas. "It is appreciated."

Alison regarded her for a moment. She could have just told her to leave, told her that she didn't want her to stay. But she felt guilty and now she was leaving her sister alone with a complete unknown.

She headed out the front door wondering if she would come to regret her decision.


	8. HG:Y1:E02:Ch02

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter Two****

The map book of Midway County was quite insightful. Shayera could already see a few points of interest she would like to check out, such as Hawk Valley, a vast wilderness that was thick with dense forest. It was the perfect place for her to build some shelter, or perhaps if she was lucky she would find some pre-existing shelter such as a cave system. Though, she had to admit to herself that the latter was more wishful thinking.

Shayera had also studied the world atlas and had a rough idea of where she was. She was in Michigan in the United States in North America, which was where Midway County and thus Midway City were located. To her direct north was Canada, though she had no idea what that was or what kind of relationship the United States had with Canada. She knew that The U.S. Was or at least had been in some kind of cold war with another nation, the Soviet something, but the name of that other nation evaded her right now and she couldn't find it on the map.

Right now she was in the living room, thumbing through the second book of a large encyclopaedia collection. There was a wealth of knowledge in this house, more than the owners probably realised or could appreciate. She would try and consume as much as she could before she outstayed her welcome and had to leave.

Shayera looked up from the book as she heard a beeping coming from upstairs. She slowly closed the book and was about to head upstairs to see what it was when it stopped, followed by movement upstairs. At a guess, it was an alarm clock and the younger sister was getting up ready for the day.

She put the large book back on the shelf and moved back into the kitchen. There were some questions she wanted to ask the girl.

After a few minutes waiting, the girl stepped into the kitchen and paused, looking at her. She turned to leave when Shayera stopped her.

"You can have some breakfast, don't let me stop you."

The girl paused and glanced back over her shoulder, clearly intimidated by her. Shayera had to admit that she found a little satisfaction in it.

"Come sit down," Shayera said, gesturing to one of the chairs at the table.

Cautiously the girl turned back around and made her way to the table and sat down.

"Lolita, isn't it?" Shayera asked.

The girl nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"So, Lolita. I want you to answer some questions I have."

Lolita nodded while squirming in her seat uncomfortably. "Okay, sure."

"First question. Does this planet have a data network?" The girl looked at her dumbfounded. Shayera decided to explain. "A network where one can get access to information."

"You mean the internet?" Lolita said.

"I might. Explain the internet."

"It's like a thing you can go on and surf websites. I go on it to research stuff for school."

"Sounds like it might be what I'm looking for. Do you have access in this house?"

"Yeah, but I don't think you're allowed on it."

"I will ask your sister then."

"Okay."

"One last thing. No one is to know I'm here, understood?"

She nodded quickly. "Yes, I understand."

"Good, because if I find out you told people about me, I will be upset. Very upset, do you understand?"

"Understood," Lolita said as she stood up and practically ran out of the kitchen.

Shayera was concerned about being discovered before she had the chance to fully get to know her surroundings. She wanted to reveal herself on her own terms, not the loose lips of some human girl. Scaring her a little was warranted and she didn't feel bad about it. Her only concern was the reaction of the older woman, Alison. Not that it mattered in the long run what the human thought of her. In the short run, however, Shayera still needed a place to stay while she got more familiar with the world she found herself on.

She stood up and made her way back into the living room. On her way, she saw Lolita heading out of the front door with a backpack, closing and locking the door behind her. No doubt she was on her way to school, given her age.

Shayera continued on into the living room, where she sat down in front of the large thick glass-fronted monitor that lay in the centre of the room. She noticed that a small black device on the low table in front of the sofa had the same logo as the large monitor. She picked it up and looked at it, before pressing the large red button at the top. The large monitor turned on with a slight hum and images appeared on the screen, with sound coming from the speakers.

The Thanagarian sat there and before long she found herself enthralled by what she saw. It appeared to be a play of some kind, but there wasn't a direct audience watching it live, instead it was pre-recorded and edited in an artful way.

She remembered that Thanagar had once had something similar to this, however, the war with the Gordanians had rendered such things worthless and a waste of resources. If it didn't benefit the war or Thanagar's survival then it had been cast aside and deemed pointless.

But here there wasn't a war with the Gordanians. The people while still in conflict with themselves lived in relative peace. In many ways, she felt a little envious. In other ways, she felt sorry for them. They didn't know what was out there, so they weren't prepared for it. When the slavers came, whether they be the Gordanians or other equally vile race she doubted humanity would be ready or even know what was happening.

She knew she should switch it off and get back to studying the various texts, but she decided that a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

* * *

"Why didn't she break his legs?" Shayera questioned to the device she had learned since she had started watching was called a "Teevee".

She was watching a drama where a woman had discovered that her husband had been cheating on her. She didn't understand why he had been able to walk out of the house after the brief and tearful confrontation. If it had been her, she would have made it so he had to crawl out.

It appeared that things were done differently here. Judging by what was said, it seemed they would simply separate and annul their marriage and go their separate ways.

Finding the drama to be unrealistic, at least by her standards, she began to surf through the channels looking for something remotely interesting.

The sound of the front door closing made her jump. She quickly turned off the television and made her way to the door and peeked out seeing Lolita heading upstairs.

"You're back already?" Shayera questioned.

Lolita froze and looked down at her. "It's twenty past three," she said quickly. "School's finished."

Shayera glanced at the strange clock on the wall. The arms had definitely moved, but she had no idea what it meant. The twelve numbers were throwing her for a loop.

"How many hours in a day?" Shayera asked her.

"Twenty-four," Lolita told her.

"You work on two twelve hours?" Shayera questioned.

"Yeah, why don't you?"

"Measurement of time is arbitrary," Shayera told her. "It changes from world to world."

"Oh, okay," Lolita said, remaining stood there on the stairs looking rather uncomfortable.

"How many hours were you at school?"

"'Bout six-and-a-half," Lolita answered.

"One-quarter of the day," Shayera commented. "Either I've lost track of time or your hours are very short."

"Maybe," she said as she began to slowly inch her way further up the stairs.

"One more thing before you run off. What's wrong with your television?"

Lolita's face took on a shocked expression. "Wrong? Is it broken?"

Shayera shook her head. "I meant the broadcasts it receives. They seem quite strange."

"Well um, that's daytime TV For ya," Lolita commented as she continued to inch her way further up the stairs.

"Is teevee in the daytime stranger than at other times?"

Lolita shrugged. "I dunno. Depends on what you watch."

"I see," Shayera said, deciding that she wasn't going to get much useful information from the girl. "I won't keep you," she then added as she headed back into the living room.

Shayera realised that it was going to take some time getting used to this strange culture. But the television would no doubt show some insight, no matter how peculiar it was.

She stretched out her wings and made her way over to the window where she pulled the curtain aside and looked out into the backyard. She wanted to go take a flight, but it was still far too light out and she would be spotted in moments.

With nothing else to do, she sat down on the couch with her arms folded. She didn't want to watch anything else today as she'd had enough and she'd had her fill of looking through maps and reading encyclopaedias.

The Thanagarian stretched out her arms and leant back. Tomorrow she would head into Hawk Valley and see if she could find anywhere she could set up a base of operations. While living in a comfy furnished house would be nice, it was impracticable for her needs unless she could find a place away and out of view from civilisation. She needed freedom of movement and a house in this or any other suburb didn't afford her that.

Shayera closed her eyes. She would have preferred it if she had come here by ship. That way she could have parked it somewhere away from civilisation and used it as a home base. Instead, she only had what she could carry or wear.

While it was true that in the past she had done espionage operations with very little, she had never been actually trapped on a planet before with no real way of calling for backup or getting off of the planet. She didn't even know where Thanagarian space was from here. If things went badly, then she was in for a rough time.

She stood up and headed out of the living room and made her way upstairs. She was starting to feel tired and wanted to take a nap. She put it down to her not having a proper night's sleep over the last few days.

Shayera stepped into the room she had been given and laid down on the bed. She doubted she would get much sleep, but she would try. It wasn't like there was anything else she could do at that moment.

* * *

The smell of food woke her up. Her stomach rumbled as she opened her eyes to the darkened room.

Shayera climbed out of bed and made her way to the door and pulled it open a crack. The smell was stronger and it was definitely the odour of someone cooking something and by the smell of it, it was tasty.

The Thanagarian stepped out of the room and made her way downstairs and into the kitchen, where she found Lolita stood by a metal box which was currently making a humming sound.

The young human girl looked at her, her face suddenly becoming one of worry.

"Oh, are you hungry?" Lolita asked her nervously.

"Maybe," Shayera said. "Is that a cooking device?" she asked, gesturing to the machine on the side which had what appeared to be food spinning behind a mesh inside.

"Yeah, it's a microwave," the girl told her. "Don't you have them where you come from?"

"We have similar things, yes," Shayera told her. "What are you cooking?"

"A microwave meal," she said. "I got it out of the freezer. There's more if you want one."

"Yes, what do you have to eat?"

"I'm having fish fillets. Do you want the same?"

"Sure, I will have the fish fillet thing."

Lolita made her way to the tall refrigeration unit and opened one of the drawers before pulling out a small rectangular box. She opened it and pulled something out before putting it down next to the microwave.

The device made a ding sound before the human pulled the door open. "You can have this one if you want?" she offered.

"I will," Shayera said as she stepped up to the microwave.

"It's hot," Lolita warned.

Shayera reached in and felt the plate. It was hot, but not so much it would cause her any harm. She pulled the plate out and put it on the table.

"I'm making fries as well if you want some."

"Yes," Shayera nodded. "I will have some of these fries."

Lolita stepped up to the oven and checked a strange sizzling pan before pulling out a mesh filled with strange sticks of food.

"Bring your plate and I'll put some on."

Shayera did as she was instructed and half of the so-called fries were put onto her plate. She then sat back down while Lolita put her own fish fillets into the microwave and twisted the dial on the front.

"Do you want a drink?" Lolita asked her, while Shayera studied her fish fillets and fries.

"Yes," Shayera answered.

"You want soda?"

"What is soda?"

"A drink."

"No, water will do."

Lolita stepped over to a wall mounted cupboard and retrieved a glass before turning on the tap and filling it up with water and putting it on the table in front of Shayera.

Lolita stood there a moment, waiting for the alien to say "Thank you," or something akin to that. When the winged woman didn't, she returned to the microwave where she watched the dial spin down to zero.

Meanwhile, Shayera poked at the fries and fish fillets with her fork. They certainly weren't like anything she had eaten back on Thanagar. The fries were odd strips of something. She couldn't tell if they were some kind of vegetable or not. As for the fish fillets, they appeared to be animal flesh of some kind.

Deciding to risk eating some of this alien food, Shayera stuck her fork into a stick of fries and raised it to her mouth, biting it in half.

Her first thought was that it was greasy. It wasn't horrendous, but it also wasn't the greatest thing she had ever eaten. She ate the other half of the fry before stabbing two more and eating them. Still, she wasn't quite sure if the fries came from an animal or plant. She knew that she could always ask, but right now she simply wanted to eat.

After quickly finishing the fries, she started on the fish, which was nicer than the fries, but it was still a little greasy for her taste.

Lolita sat down with her own meal. "You like it?" she asked.

"It is interesting," Shayera answered.

Lolita stared at her for a moment, before turning her attention to her meal. Shayera wondered for a moment if there was something that the human was expecting from her. Probably more gratitude, but Shayera wasn't the type to show it, especially to people of another species.

After finishing the fish, Shayera stood up and peered out of the window out into the backyard. The sky was turning orange, meaning it was approaching dusk. When nightfall came, she had every intention of going for a flight to get an aerial view of the area, perhaps even head to the city.

Shayera turned away from the window and looked back at Lolita who was eating her food.

She still wasn't quite used to the way the humans looked. They were so much like her, yet the lack of wings made them appear odd to her. One thing she couldn't overlook and actually made her feel more at ease was how this gave her an obvious and distinct advantage over them. Not that she had any intent on trying to subjugate anyone.

Shayera moved back over to the table and sat back down. As sad as it was, this young Earth woman was currently her only window into humanity. She might as well use this resource.

"So, what is it you usually do after school?" Shayera asked her.

Lolita looked up at her. "Um, I don't know. I do homework and watch TV."

"You don't go out with friends?"

"No," Lolita said.

"Do you have friends?" the Thanagarian questioned.

"Yeah, of course," Lolita said a little too defensively, before quickly scoffing down the rest of her food.

Shayera watched her as she stood up, moved over to the fridge and grabbed a can of something from it before she hastily left the room.

With her gone, Shayera moved over into the living room where she waited until the sun had gone down. door that led to the yard only to find that it was locked. Luckily she didn't have to look far, finding them in a drawer by the door. She put the keys into the door and unlocked it, before sensing a presence. She turned around to see Lolita stood on the stairs looking at her.

Shayera put the keys back on the side. "I'm going out for a few minutes. Lock up behind me."

The human girl simply nodded. Shayera stepped outside into the crisp, clear evening air and looked up at the sky. It called out to her and she yearned to be up there in flight.

After taking a quick look around at the neighbouring houses to make sure no one was looking, she took to the air and soared into the sky.

Circling overhead, she began to look around at the area. The town where she had come from was indeed separate from the city, though still quite close. It was separated by an area of trees. Beyond the town opposite the direction of the city was wilderness and dense woodland. The hills sloped down into a valley, with a river snaking through it. In the distance she could see the glow of more lights, possibly another town or city.

That would be something she would investigate later. Tomorrow she would get up early while it was still dark and investigate the valley once the sun had risen. Tonight she would fly over to the city and get a feel for the population, at least from the air.

Shayera landed on the grass in the backyard and knocked on the door. She waited a few minutes before it was opened by Lolita who quickly moved aside, letting her in.

Lolita closed the door and locked it. She turned around and simply stared at her. Shayera couldn't help but smile. "Everything good?"

Lolita nodded slightly. "Yes," she said as she quickly moved back upstairs.

The Thanagarian continued to smile as she headed into the kitchen and grabbed a drink. She then headed upstairs and headed into the bathroom. It took a few minutes, but she figured out how to operate the shower and after washing herself, she went to bed.


	9. HG:Y1:E02:Ch03

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter Three****

There was a sound downstairs, which awoke Shayera. She opened her eyes finding that it was still dark outside. She quickly climbed out of bed and put on her armour and helmet on. With mace on her hip, she opened the door and headed slowly downstairs.

The kitchen light was on and she gently pushed the door open finding Alison inside.

The human doctor turned to her, a glass of water in hand. "You're up late," she commented.

"I just awoke," Shayera corrected.

"Oh, well in that case you're up early," she amended. "How was your day?"

"Uneventful," Shayera said.

Alison took a sip of her water. "There's not really much to do around here, especially if you can't go outside."

"I've been outside," Shayera corrected. "I went out last night after sundown."

"Nobody saw you did they?" Alison asked with concern. "You can't be seen."

"I know what I'm doing," Shayera assured her. "In a few minutes, I'll be heading out again, to the valley."

That surprised Alison. "You are?"

"I want to be out there before sunrise so I'm not seen flying there. Once the sun comes up, I'll be exploring the area."

"You want to take some food with you?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"You'll want to eat something," Alison pointed out. "There's a lot of hours between sunrise and sunset.

Shayera frowned. This human seemed to be mothering her. "I will be fine. If I get hungry, I'll hunt my own food."

"Hunting's illegal in the valley," Alison informed her. "There's a hefty fine if you're caught."

"Not like they can fine me," Shayera said. "Regardless, I'm still going to check out the valley."

"You heading out now?"

"Yes," Shayera confirmed.

"Okay, I'll let you out." Alison headed to the back door, followed closely by Shayera. She grabbed the key from the drawer and unlocked the door and pulled it open.

"I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

"We'll see," Shayera said as she stepped outside into the backyard.

A moment later she was airborne and heading south into the valley proper. Even in the darkness, it looked quite beautiful with a carpet of trees that stretched on. Beyond the trees, it grew flat and there was what appeared to be farmland, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

The Thanagarian descended down towards the river that snaked through the middle of the valley and landed on the embankment.

There was only a hint of the brightening of the sky to the east, though she couldn't tell if it was because of the son to be rising of the sun, or because of light pollution from a nearby town or city.

She walked along the river bank until she found an old fallen tree. She sat down on its horizontal trunk and waited for the sun to rise.

Several times, Shayera caught herself almost falling asleep. The sounds of the wind gently blowing through the trees and the water in the river moving past was almost enough to lull her to sleep.

Eventually, the sky started to brighten, at first slowly, then quite rapidly as the sun peaked over the horizon, bathing the valley in light.

With the knowledge that she would now be able to see much better, Shayera took to the air. She didn't really know what it was she was looking for, apart from she needed a home base.

She pulled out the small multitool device from her pocket and opened it. She activated the scan mode and it began to collect some data, though she quickly realised that it wasn't working properly.

She hit it on the back and it cleared up for a moment before it began to corrupt again. She sighed as she put it away. It seemed that it had been damaged during transit here to this world. That wasn't good. She needed it if she was going to make any meaningful headway on her mission. She would have to take a look at it later, though she wasn't sure how much good that would do. She didn't have the tools or necessary software to perform a proper diagnostic.

The Thanagarian focused back onto the hear and now as she followed the river. She continued to do so until the trees ended, replaced by farmland. With nothing much else to see, she turned around and headed north, back the way she had come.

After flying almost all the way back to where she had started, near the town on the outskirts of Midway City, she descended back down and landed by the river.

She realised that she might be wasting her time out here. Even if she did build herself shelter, she was close enough to civilisation that any kind of shelter could easily be discovered. She needed to go further out, but until she knew the area better, that would be a bad idea, otherwise she could easily get lost. It would be easier if her multitool was working properly, but she knew she might have to make do without it.

Knowing that there was little chance she would find anything out here, at least not without risking getting lost, she took to the air and flew northwards back towards the town of Hawk Valley. It was still early in the day, so if she tried to head back to Alison's house, there was a high chance she would be seen, so she flew over and headed towards the city, keeping her altitude high enough that she would hopefully look like a bird. At least to those not paying too close attention. If anyone took a good long look, they would see she wasn't just another bird.

As she got closer to the city, the air began to change. There were benefits, such as more thermals giving her lift, but there was also the smell of pollution which permeated the air around her. There was also a lot of traffic, with ground cars crawling along the paved streets.

Shayera made her way to the tallest building, which lay towards the centre of the city and landed on the roof, which was adorned by a rather tall metal pole, which at a guess was some kind of lightning conductor.

She sat on the edge of the building and dangled her legs off of the side and just stared out at the expanse of steel, concrete and glass that stretched out before her. It was strange to look at. While it was familiar, it was also alien to her. The buildings were so simple in their designs and the skies were so empty.

Back home on Thanagar, the skies would be full of people, well, not perhaps as full as they had before the war with the Gordanians, but there would have been at least several hundred visible flying in the skies above a city at any one time.

Here in this city, there was no one else. There was only her that could just leap up into the air and fly. These people didn't know true freedom of motion, they had never experienced it. They existed in two dimensions, trapped by gravity. The only way they could fly was with mechanical aid. It was sad in a way, but it did give her a distinct advantage.

The winged woman stood up and walked to the other side of the roof and looked down at the north side of the city. It looked pretty much the same as the south side, but with more high-rises.

Finding herself becoming bored, she spread her wings and took to the air. She headed northwards until she reached the edge of the city. She then turned and began to head east towards what appeared to be an industrial zone.

Before she made it to the tall pollution-spewing chimney stacks, she headed south to avoid being covered in whatever they were putting out, or worse poisoned by it and flew towards the river which hugged the side of the city before it meandered off into the valley.

Shayera followed the water back towards the valley before she began to climb higher into the sky above the clouds. It would be a while before nightfall came, so she might as well enjoy herself.

She saw a flock of birds below her and swooped down, causing them all to scatter in different directions. She laughed as she ascended back up through the clouds as high as she could go, up until she was struggling to get any more lift and started to feel a little light-headed.

Then, she folded back her wings and plummeted back down towards the ground far below, the air rushing through her hair and across her bare arms and lower face.

A field of grass sped towards her, then, just at the last moment, she spread her wings out and caught the air, flying back up into the sky, where she began to ascend higher and higher once more.

Her attention was drawn to an aircraft in the distance. She decided it would probably be wise to descend out of sight as it appeared to be not only a fairly large aircraft but was coming in her general direction.

As she went beneath the clouds, she realised that she was not near Midway City or even Hawk Valley. In fact she was over a body of water that appeared to be a large lake. Realising that it would be idiotic to continue on, she began to head back in the direction she had come, or at the very least she hoped it was the right direction.

From the maps she had looked at before, she knew that the city lay north of the valley. She also knew from that information that the sun rose in the east and set in the west. With that information, she could roughly tell just by the sun, which way to go. From the position of this system's star in the sky, or rather her current location and it's current rotation position, it was just after midday.

A lot of this was simply guess work and if she was wrong, then that meant she was heading in the wrong direction.

Luckily, as she climbed in altitude, she saw a river ahead, which joined with the lake. Upstream led northwards and her intuition told her that it would take her back to the valley and her intuition was rarely wrong.

As she continued up against the river, she saw the sight of hills and forest ahead, then peaking over the hills was the city. She breathed a breath of relief, she hadn't gone too far out, which was good. She would have hated to have gotten lost so soon after arriving on this planet. That would have been personally embarrassing.

Starting to feel a little tired from her flight, she descended down into the woodland by the river and sat down on the embankment.

Shayera watched as the water moved by her peacefully.

She sat there for the rest of the afternoon thinking over what her next move was. The plan was simple in principle, but in practice, it would be far from it. She wasn't infiltrating some compound or facility, she was infiltrating an entire planet.

She pulled out her multitool and slid the sides open and checked the screen. It was still reading her location as being a few kilometres to the south.

Knowing there was a high chance it wouldn't do anything, Shayera decided to run a self-diagnostic. The problem with doing that was that depending on what the issue with the device was, it might not provide any meaningful results.

She did it anyway and waited for the diagnostic to be completed, which did take some time. During the process, she continued to sit there and watch the water stream past.

Finally, it began to beep and she looked at what was displayed on the screen. The operating system had corrupted files and would attempt to restore. That would be more difficult with external backup files, but there was a chance it might be able to recover without them.

With a simple finger swipe, the device attempted to restore the corrupted files. Unfortunately, it only managed to repair some of them, leaving several core files still damaged.

With a frustrated sigh, she slid the sides closed over the screen and put the device away and sat there for a few more hours.

As the sun began to set, she decided to head back to Alison's house. She might as well make use of the hospitality while she could.

She made a point not to fly too quickly and by the time she was landing in the back yard of what she hoped was the right house, it was dark.

Cautiously, she knocked on the back door and waited for a response. It took close to a minute, but the door opened revealing Lolita on the other side.

"I got the right house," Shayera commented.

"Um, yeah," she said. "Come on in."

Shayera did so and the teen pushed the door shut. "Your sister in?" the winged woman asked.

"No, still at work."

"She works quite hard," Shayera said. "How often do you see her?"

"Maybe a few minutes in the morning before she rushes off," Lolita said. "More often at night, but that can also be rare."

"Must get lonely," Shayera said as they both moved into the kitchen where Lolita was using the microwave oven to cook something.

"Yeah," she said. "You hungry?"

Shayera smiled. "This seems familiar," she commented.

"Yeah, from yesterday," Lolita said.

"Yes it was," she agreed. "What are you having?"

"Lasagne," Lolita said.

"I think I'll have something simple."

"Well, there's bread and ham and stuff in the refrigerator."

Shayera grimaced, not quite understanding what she meant by bread and ham. "I think I need to go get something, hang on a minute."

"Oh, okay," Lolita said as she turned back to the microwave oven.

Shayera quickly headed upstairs and opened the drawer where she had put the Absorbascon. She had actually forgotten to put it on that morning, though it hadn't mattered she hadn't needed it for anything.

She took off her helmet and switched on the Absorbascon before putting it over her head. While it could be activated and deactivated by thought alone, she liked to use the hard switch because she didn't entirely trust it not to fill her head with useless, pointless information.

With the device on her head, she put her helmet back on and headed back downstairs.

Lolita was sat at the table, fork in hand eating her rather odd meal.

"Now, tell me again."

"About what?"

"About the bread."

"Oh, it's stuff you put other stuff in to make a sandwich."

Shayera nodded, not only at the teen's words but at the information the device was feeding her. "Ah, we have similar on Thanagar. So, you call it bread."

"Yeah, and we have sliced ham."

"Which is meat," Shayera said. "Okay, that will do me."

"It's pre-sliced," Lolita told her. "So you just need to stick what you want into it. There's also some fruit juice in there too."

Shayera headed to the refrigerator and pulled it open, finding the sandwich meat on the shelf. She took it over to where the bread box was on the side and opened it, pulling out the bread and putting it on the breadboard. She slapped a slice of ham between two rounds of bread. With that done, she put the bread and ham away, retrieved a plate from the cupboard and put it down on the table before retrieving a drinking glass and the fruit juice. She filled the receptacle and put the juice away. With all of that done, she sat down at the table.

She took a bite out of the sandwich. Her first thought was that it was dry and a little too sweet, at least to her palette. The bread on Thanagar wasn't sweet at all and was denser. This seemed like it was mostly air.

Still, she ate it, though it wasn't particularly filling. The juice was better but still tasted overly sweet to her. She would like to have more food, but she didn't want to become too dependent on them feeding her.

Shayera would most likely eventually start hunting her own in the valley, regardless as to whether it was legal or not. She suspected that the hunting laws only applied to humans, as they wouldn't think to apply it to anyone else, so if that was the case, then technically she was exempt.

Shayera stood up. "Enjoy the rest of your meal," she said.

Lolita looked up from her lasagne. "Don't you want dessert?" she asked.

"No."

"We have apples," she said, pointing to a fruit bowl.

Shayera thought for a moment before she relented. A piece of fruit would do her good.

She picked the apple out of the bowl and studied it for a moment.

"It doesn't need peeling," Lolita told her. "Just don't eat the core."

Shayera sat back at the table and took a bite out of the apple. It seemed slightly bitter but otherwise was rather nice. She quickly ate it down, apart from the core and she put it down on the plate. She then looked over at Lolita as the younger woman finished off her lasagne.

"So," Shayera began, "is this all you do after school?"

Lolita shrugged as she rinsed her plate in the sink.

"Does that gesture mean you don't know?"

Lolita shrugged again.

"Gone shy on me?"

"I don't do much," Lolita finally answered. "I come home, watch TV, have some food, do some homework, then I go to bed."

"Not exactly adventurous, are you," Shayera said.

Lolita shrugged again. "You can put that apple core in the trash if you want."

Shayera stood up and opened the lid of the trash can and threw the waste inside. With the lid back on, she turned to Lolita as she pulled a dessert in a carton out of the refrigerator and then grabbed a spoon.

"What's that?" Shayera asked her.

"Yogurt," Lolita replied.

"What's it made of?"

"I don't know," Lolita said with a shrug. "Milk and stuff I guess."

"You're eating something and you don't know what it is?"

Lolita shrugged yet again as she began to eat it.

Shayera watched her for a moment, then turned and headed out of the kitchen. "Enjoy your gloop," she said as she headed upstairs.

For today she was done. Today had felt mostly like a waste of time. Tomorrow she would figure out what came next. For now, she just wanted some rest.

* * *

The following day, Shayera spent it entirely in the house, searching through whatever information she could get ahold of. Here in this house, it was limited, however, she did find an old state map that according to what she understood the current date to be, which was mid to late 1999, that meant the road atlas was a good fifteen years out of date.

It didn't matter, though, because she had found a point of interest. There was an airforce base not too far from Midway City. It was a military installation and would give a good indication as to the level of technology she was dealing with here on this world.

As the day turned to night, she decided to head out to this military base, though she wasn't going to tell Lolita, who let her out of the back door and then locked it behind her, that fact.

It didn't take long for her to see the first signs of the airforce base. Even from several miles away, She could see the radar towers of the airforce base. Knowing how they worked, she kept low, beneath their detection zone.

There wasn't much going on at the moment. She had to keep out of the sights of the few personnel that were moving about, but that was easy. She kept her distance and kept low.

Once she was in close, within two-hundred metres, landed in the branches of a tall half-dead tree and took a look of the layout.

There was a runway, which meant that they needed speed and aerodynamics to take to the air. Not an indication of technology level in itself, but it didn't bode well if their craft weren't all VTOL capable.

A sound caught her attention from behind her. It was an aircraft, probably a helicopter from the sound of it. She then caught sight of it, heading in her general direction.

She hid out of sight as the helicopter flew over. The craft had twin upward facing rotors as opposed to the others she had seen both in real life and on TV. The rotors were on the front and rear of the fuselage and appeared to be perhaps spinning in alternate directions. The aircraft slowed, hovered for a few moments before landing.

Shayera watched as those aboard disembarked and headed inside the large main building.

Not able to see much else going on, she took to the air and began to circle around the airforce base, keeping low and distant to help avoid being seen.

She pulled out her multitool and hoped that it's camera function still worked. She began to take images of the base as well as some scans, though, due to the devices current temperamental nature, she wasn't sure if the scans could be entirely trusted.

From her vantage point, she could see several hangars all in a line alongside the runway. Even from here she could see aircraft inside them. Wanting to take a closer look, she took to the air and flew in low over the fence and across the runway and landed on top of the middle hangar.

There she waited until she was certain that no one had spotted her before jumped off the hangar roof and slipped inside, making her way to the aircraft.

She walked around it, admiring its design. It looked rather intimidating with its long sharp nose and sweptback wings. Overall, the technology wasn't that impressive. She was confident that she could take this plane apart with one well-placed strike of her mace. She doubted that she would even have to charge it.

Having seen enough, at least for tonight, Shayera left the base behind and headed back towards the house.

As she approached Hawk Valley town, she slowed and kept her eyes on the rear windows of the neighbours on either side of the house. The lights were off, but that didn't mean no one was home or that they were in bed.

She came in to land as silently as possible, setting down by the back door. She knocked on the back door and waited for a response. It didn't take long for her to hear the door being unlocked and for it to open. On the other side was Alison.

Shayera commented on seeing her. "You are either home early, or I am extremely late."

"I'm home early," the human woman said. "Come on in."

Shayera stepped inside and Alison promptly locked the door, before turning to the winged woman.

"We haven't had much chance to talk," Alison said.

"No, you have been spending all of your time at the hospital."

"I know, we've been busy."

"With what?"

"There was a big shootout between two large crime families a few days ago. We have a lot of injured, but not just innocent people. We also have some of the criminals in the hospital as well. That means the place is also crawling with cops and makes doing getting in and out of the hospital a real hassle."

"You are treating the criminals?" Shayera asked in surprise.

"More like keeping them alive so that the cops can get information out of them," Alison said.

"On my home planet of Thanagar, we would get the information we needed then let them die."

"This isn't your planet," Alison said with a hard edge. "I like to think that we're quite progressive here, at least in the west. We believe in human rights."

"There is a difference between giving people rights and being stupid about it. Criminals relinquish their rights when they become criminals."

"In the case of some crimes, if they're bad enough, yeah, I agree I guess," Alison accepted. "But not all crimes are equal."

"A criminal is a criminal and a crime is a crime," Shayera told her. "Be harsh and they will think twice before breaking the law. Zero tolerance breeds a far more lawful society that will obey and respect authority."

Alison was a little more than sarcastic in her response. "Your planet sounds charming, a real nice place to visit."

Shayera wasn't impressed with her dismissive tone. "You can mock it all you want, however, we are a space-faring race and you are still stuck on your tiny little world still warring with each other."

Alison clenched her jaw. "Okay, point taken. Just sounds a little oppressive to me."

"It might sound like that, but it isn't," Shayera said. "Our way works and it breeds a superior morality and a superior society and a superior people."

Alison cringed. "Yeah, that sounds a bit like the rhetoric in Germany in the late thirties."

Shayera didn't recognise the reference, but she could tell that it hadn't been a good thing. She would have to do some research on that period on Earth's history to get more context to what the woman was referring to. That could wait for now.

"We will just have to disagree," Shayera told her.

"I guess we will," Alison agreed half-heartedly. "Me and Lolita have already eaten, do you want something?"

"No, I'm not hungry."

"Skipping meals isn't healthy," Alison said. "And Lolita told me you only had a sandwich and an apple yesterday. Have you eaten today?"

"I do not need you mothering me," Shayera said with a scowl. "I can easily feed myself. I just don't like taking your food."

"It's fine, if you're hungry, just grab something to eat."

"I said I can feed myself," Shayera told her firmly. "I am far more adept at survival than you are. I can take care of myself."

"Which is why you keep coming back here," Alison put simply.

Shayera absolutely hated it when anyone got the upper hand on her and Alison had got a point with that last comment. She wasn't about to concede on that point, though.

"I won't be here for very long," she assured the human woman.

"You don't like depending on other people do you," Alison observed.

"I'm not depending on other people. This is only temporary, I can assure you."

"There's nothing wrong with asking or needing help," Alison said sincerely. "You're on an alien world, you don't know our laws or customs, or anything. I helped you when you came out of that portal or whatever it was and I will continue to help you."

"I don't need your help," Shayera said.

"Maybe not, but you can stay as long as you need."

Shayera was silent. She did owe this woman quite a lot. She had helped her, brought her into her home. She deserved her gratitude, not her hostility. The truth was, she was frustrated with her situation.

With a deep intake of breath, Shayera lowered her head slightly. "Thank you," she said.

"Unfortunately, I've got to get up early in the morning again, so goodnight."

"Goodnight," Shayera said as she watched Alison head up the stairs.

Shayera knew she couldn't stay here, but until she had found somewhere else she would have to. It would be idiotic to leave and sleep in the woods and until she knew more about the area, she couldn't just build herself shelter in the valley as it could very easily be discovered.

There was a lot to think about, but it could wait. She was feeling tired and the lure of sleep was the most important thing to her.

Shayera made her way upstairs and went to bed.


	10. HG:Y1:E02:Ch04

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter Four****

When Shayera awoke the sky outside was starting to grow light. She fought the urge to remain laid comfortably in bed and threw back the covers and climbed out. After a stretch, which including her wings, she put on her helmet, her armour and stepped out of the room.

She had slept in her dark green sleeveless bodysuit, as she had done since arriving here. One of the good things about it was that it didn't pick up or retain any smells, which meant it didn't need to be washed. Any odours that did manage to get on it could be easily washed off with some water.

She headed into the bathroom and grabbed a shower. Once that was out of the way, including the cumbersome task of drying her wings, she headed downstairs where she found Lolita sat eating breakfast, which was in a bowl.

"What is that you're eating?" Shayera questioned.

"Cornflakes," Lolita told her as she looked up from her bowl. "If you want some, they're in the cupboard," she said pointing.

Shayera made her way over and pulled the cupboard open, finding a few near identical boxes inside. The only differences were the colour schemes and the names.

She picked out the box that had cornflakes printed on the front and took it to the table, before retrieving a bowl. She opened the box and looked inside.

"You pour them in the bowl," Lolita instructed.

Shayera tipped the box. A mass of flakes slid out of the box into the bowl causing it to overflow onto the table. Shayera quickly turned the box back upright as she cursed in her native tongue under her breath.

A chuckle from Lolita only made her even angrier. She closed the box back up and put it back in the cupboard, resisting the urge to slam the door shut as she closed it.

"You'll want some milk," the young human girl told her.

"And where's that?" Shayera demanded with a glare.

Lolita lowered her head and her voice became timid. "In the refrigerator," she said quietly.

The Thanagarian stepped up to the refrigerator and pulled it open, retrieving the milk bottle from the door. She moved over to her bowl and eager not to repeat the near mishap from earlier, she tipped it just enough for the white liquid to come out.

Shayera, of course, was familiar with animal milk. On Thanagar and their colonies, they too had grazing animals that were bred to produce the stuff in huge quantities.

With a spoon in hand, she took a scoop of the cereal and had a taste. It wasn't too bad. She took another scoop, then another. The cereal was uncomplicated and rather easy to eat. Before long, it was all completely gone.

"I have to get off to school," Lolita said quietly as she stood up. "I'll see you tonight, I guess."

Shayera didn't respond as the girl threw a backpack over her shoulder and left the house, locking the front door behind her. She had meant to get up before dawn, but now it was after. This meant she couldn't exactly just leave because there was a good chance she would be seen and she doubted there were many people here on this world with two giant wings on their back that could fly.

Then again, maybe there was a way.

Her eyes fell on a large raincoat that was on a hook by the door. It was a crazy idea, but maybe it could work.

She took the coat off of the hook and folded her wings tightly against her back before putting it on. It was a tight fit, but she managed to pull up the zipper and fasten the poppers.

She stepped up to the mirror that lay at the bottom of the stairs and turned sideways. She almost laughed at how stupid she looked. There was a large bulge in the back of the coat where her wings were.

It would have to do for now. If anyone asked, she would just say that she had a backpack on underneath. That would work, she hoped.

This gave her a new opportunity to view the humans at their own level, trapped on the ground in a two-dimensional world.

One thing she would have to ditch was the helmet. There was no way she would be able to blend in wearing it and she didn't have anywhere in the coat to put it.

With a disgruntled sigh, she took it off and headed upstairs, putting it on the bed. She felt naked without it, but it couldn't be helped. She couldn't wear it and because it was armoured, she couldn't exactly fold it up and put it in a pocket.

She pulled the bedroom door shut and headed back downstairs, where she grabbed the key for the back door. She unlocked it and stepped outside before re-locking the door. She put the key in an inside pocket which had a zipper on it and fastened it up before she made her way through the side gate and down the lawn onto the path that ran up and down the street.

Her gaze fell on the city ahead. That was her destination and this time she wouldn't be flying above it, she would be down on the ground with everyone else.

* * *

Shayera Hol walked along the side of the highway, her wings tucked and folded awkwardly into the large raincoat coat. The sun was beating down on her and had started to sweat. It was a hot morning, which probably meant it was going to be a stifling, unpleasant day. At least it would be in the thick coat.

The passing traffic filled the air with the stench of pollution. The people hadn't even advanced past fossil fuels, which she had already noted, but being down here amongst the stench was unpleasant.

A car slowed down and pulled to a stop in front of her. As she walked past, a man called out.

"Ya need a lift?" he asked.

Shayera stopped and looked through the open side window of the vehicle. "No, I am fine," she replied, hoping her English was passable.

"Are ya sure? It's another half-mile or so ta Midway City," he told her. "Also, ain't ya hot in that coat?"

"Thank you for the offer, but no, I will walk."

"And the coat?" he asked again.

"I am not hot."

"But yer sweatin'," he pointed out.

"I am fine," she said, not even trying to hide her irritation. "Thank you for your concern, you may leave now."

His brow raised in surprise. "Okay, if ya say so. I was only askin'."

The man pulled away and drove off down the highway. The distraction had been unwanted, but it had briefly taken her mind off of the unpleasant ache in her wings. Having them folded up inside the coat was unpleasant, painful even.

Deciding that she needed to stretch them, she moved away from the road, concealing herself in the trees behind a raised mound of dirt. She removed her coat and unfurled her feathered appendages. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.

She stood there, exercising her flight muscles. After several more minutes and with some reluctance, she put the coat back on, continuing towards the population centre of Midway City.

Around an hour later, she was entering the inner city and she was absolutely miserable. Not only was she sweating and hot, her wings were also paining her again.

She was also drawing attention. After catching a reflection of herself in a window. The coat looked even bulgier than before, probably because she was struggling to keep her wings pressed against her back. She wondered if she would get less funny looks if she simply had her wings out. What excuse she would come up with to explain them away, however, she didn't know.

Unable to bear the pain any longer, she headed into the nearest alleyway. Hiding as best she could, she removed her coat. She shivered as a cold breeze blew through the alley, giving her goosebumps on her skin.

"Are ya an angel?"

Shayera spun around to see where the voice had come from. Looking down, she saw a scruffy looking bearded man, sat leant up against the wall. His face was dirty, and his hair unwashed. At a guess, the man was homeless. Or rather, he called the alley home.

"Am I dead?" he asked her. "Have ya come ta take me ta heaven? Is it finally over?"

The Thanagarian lieutenant was at a loss for words. She knew very little about Earth religions. Knowing she couldn't really explain herself away easily, she decided to give him a simple, truthful answer. "You are not dead, and I am not an angel."

"Oh, okay," he said with confusion. "What are ya then?"

"A stranger who does not want to be disturbed."

"Ya speak a little funny."

"I am not from here," she replied, trying to keep her cool.

Her English skills were one thing she definitely wanted to improve. She was sure they would, the longer she was on the planet. She just hoped she didn't gain some strange regional accent.

"What's with tha wings?"

Shayera didn't respond right away. She tried to think of a way to explain them, but nothing really came to mind, not at first anyway.

"Are ya sure ya not an angel?"

"They are decorative," she lied.

"Goin ta fancy dress or sumthin'?"

"Yes," she replied, wanting the questioning to come to an end.

"Where's the party?"

Shayera had had enough. She rested her hand on her mace, and the man's eyes went wide, as though it was the first time he'd even noticed it.

"No more questions," she told him firmly as she rested her hand on the mace that lay on her hip.

"What ya gonna do?" he asked in fear.

"Leave!" she ordered, pointing.

The man scrambled to his feet and hobbled away. He went around a corner, disappearing from sight.

With her coat draped over her arm, Shayera headed over to a fire escape. She didn't want to put the coat back on, as her wings still hurt from wearing it for so long.

Still, she had to leave the alley, as she was concerned that the homeless man might return with friends. While she relished a good fight, beating up the homeless wasn't something she really wanted to do.

Throwing the coat over her shoulder, she jumped up grabbing the ladder to the fire escape. She made her way up to the top, before climbing onto the flat roof, resting the coat back over her left arm.

Flapping her wings, she rose up into the sky. While it was probable that she would be seen, at that moment she didn't care. It seemed like forever since she had been able to take to the skies, and she didn't want to deny herself the pleasure any longer.

She cast her eyes down at the city, her gaze scouring the streets below. It reminded her of patrols back home during her first year in the military. Though they had been done in squadrons, not alone.

During that time, she had been undergoing espionage training which had lasted two years. Then, when she was ready, she had been sent off on her first mission as part of a team of three.

She was the only one that made it out alive.

Her skills in espionage had ultimately led to this. Her being stuck on an alien world, alone. She wished she could say it was an honour, but it was starting to feel a little like a punishment. These people were obviously primitives, on a planet that held no importance. Why was she here, why did Hro want her here? There had to be a reason and it as of yet eluded her.

Shayera was pulled from her thoughts by the sounds of gunfire. She changed direction and flew over to the source, then quickly began to assess the situation below.

What she saw disgusted her. Law enforcement, or the police, were involved in a stalemate with a group of men that appeared to be little more than armed thugs. On her world, this would have been dealt with quickly, but it appeared that neither side currently had the upper hand.

The cops were hiding behind their land vehicles, while the thugs were hiding behind short walls of brick and mortar.

Shayera landed on the top of a nearby building and peered down at the stalemate. She saw the opportunity for a fight, to bring order. It was something she craved.

The Thanagarian rested her hand on her mace, weighing the pros and cons of getting involved. The pros were self-gratification. The cons were her being discovered and putting her whole mission in jeopardy.

It was dangerous, it was stupid and idiotic, but she couldn't help herself. Unable to contain her lust for combat any longer, she decided to intervene.

As she her coat down on the flat roof, she unsheathed her Nth metal mace. She doubted she needed to energise it, so she left it as a simple club. She then jumped off the side of the building, letting out a loud cry. Both sides stared up at her in surprise, shock and fear.

One of the four thugs swung his rifle up at her, terror in his face as she swooped in for the strike. She smashed the weapon out of his hand, sending it flying. She then hit a second man in the gut as she flew over, knocking him off his feet, sending him hurtling into his comrades, sending them all crashing to the ground in a heap.

"Put the weapons down!"

Shayera landed back on the roof and looked down at them. It seemed her stunt had provided an adequate distraction. The police had the thugs surrounded, their weapons trained on them.

Much to her disappointment, they immediately surrendered. She had wanted more of a fight and felt somewhat underwhelmed by the whole experience. It had been a while since she had felt the thrill of actual combat and bashing a few criminals just didn't compare and certainly wasn't fulfilling.

Deciding that she had probably already drawn more attention to herself than was wise, she holstered her mace and retrieved her coat. Draping it over her left arm, she once again took to the skies.

She flew out of the city to the woodlands to the south and landed. She put the coat back on and headed back toward the Hawk Valley. She wanted to see if she had made the local news.

* * *

" _New hero or menace?"_ the news anchor asked rhetorically.

Shayera sat forward, watching the screen intently. She was back in Alison's house, which she had landed in the yard in full daylight, though she was confident that she hadn't been seen.

As soon as she was back in the house, she had wasted no time switching on the television to see if her stunt got any news coverage. It appeared that yes, it indeed had.

The report continued, _"Earlier today, police responded to a jewel store heist. During a potentially deadly confrontation, a winged stranger intervened, giving the police the chance to detain the thieves without bloodshed."_

Shayera watched shaky footage of her shrieking as she bashed the weapon out of the first criminal's hand with her mace, before smashing the other into his comrades. She then flew up, the camera following her as she landed on the roof. The shot moved back down as the police shouted at the criminals. By the time the image looked back up to the roof, she was gone.

" _So far there is no information on this 'Hawk girl', or her real identity,"_ the anchor continued. _"Earlier when pressed on the apprehension of the jewel thieves; which have been connected to several heists, the police had this to say."_

The camera switched to a man in a blue uniform who was stood behind a dais, a series of microphones pointing up at his face.

" _Whoever this vigilante is; regardless of whether she helped deal with these known criminals or not, was not only reckless, she could have easily put other lives in danger including her own."_

" _Do you think the wings were mechanical?" a_ n unseen person questioned.

 _"Is this a new hero?"_ another voice asked.

 _"We are not in a position to speculate on anything regarding this person, nor are we taking questions at this time. That is all."_

Shayera sighed to herself. She wasn't sure she knew what kind of reaction she had been expecting, but she it had definitely been something a little more substantive.

She lifted up the remote and switched the television off. One thing she could say about today was that she had absolutely no interest in heading out wearing that coat again. Her wings still hurt from being pressed against her back for so long.

Not being able to mingle and interact with people on a ground level was something she would just have to accept, not that she was too upset about it. She wasn't really the type that particularly enjoyed socialising, especially with aliens.

One thing she did enjoy was a good fight. Today hadn't really offered that, the criminals who had robbed the jewellery store had given up almost immediately. Her itch hadn't been satisfied.

Shayera heard the front door open and then close. She looked at the clock which read half-past three. Lolita was home from yet another day at school. She already knew that the girl would head upstairs for an hour or two, then come back down and make herself some dinner.

She knew there was a real danger of getting too comfortable with her situation here. She had a bed, she had a roof over her head and she had access to food. If she wasn't careful she could easily end up growing idle.

Shayera would not allow that to happen. She would find a new place to set up a base of operations and then the real work could begin. While she was here, she was limited in what she could do and where she could go, she felt a little trapped.

The Thanagarian stood up and headed out of the living room, seeing Lolita at the top of the stairs. The young human stopped and looked down at her.

"Oh, hello," she said quietly.

"You don't like me being here, do you," Shayera said.

Lolita didn't answer, which was fine as Shayera already knew what it would be.

"Don't worry, I won't be here for much longer."

Again, she didn't respond.

"You can go do whatever it was you were off to do. Don't let me stop you."

Lolita moved off out of view while Shayera returned to the living room.

Shayera pondered whether she should head out again after nightfall. She didn't want to sit in this house all day, she wanted to be doing something. She easily became restless and her current situation and the thought of complacency did put her on edge.

With a crack of her knuckles, she made up her mind. Tonight she was going out on a patrol.


	11. HG:Y1:E02:Ch05

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter Five****

The night air was still and cool, which made her flight quite pleasant, a little too pleasant in fact. After ten minutes into the patrol, she struggled to keep her mind focused. It was a rather mundane night, with absolutely nothing of interest below. In fact, she would call it boring and pointless.

Her eyes scoured the streets and rooftops. There was a lot of traffic and as she went deeper into the city, the smell of pollution became disgustingly clear in the air. It was almost enough to ruin her night. Almost.

Right now, she was heading towards the inner city. From there she would fly over Slumville, before heading to the industrial district. Then her route doubled back and took her over the inner city once again.

The inner city was bristling with lights, which made it both easier and harder for her to see at the same time. Seeing what was on street-level was easy, seeing the rooftops was harder, due to all the light pollution.

Shayera passed over the inner city and didn't notice anything of worth. She did see a small group of men harassing another man, but she wasn't interested in getting involved with such mundane things. She wanted a real threat, a real challenge.

Slumville was a different matter altogether. Even while still in the downtown district, she could hear the sounds of weapons fire.

She altered course, heading towards the source of the sounds. As she flew over she saw it. Men in a dark sedan were being chased by a yellow car and they were shooting behind them.

The car in front swerved as a blue car came speeding out of a junction and the black car left the road and hit a brick wall. The men in the blue car ignored the dark sedan and opened fire on the yellow car. Then from behind, two more yellow cars showed up, men jumping out with bats and guns.

It looked dangerous, and Shayera knew that if she got involved, that she could easily be risking her life. Yet this was exactly what she had been waiting for, what she needed to make her feel _alive_.

From her vantage point, she could see the two groups on opposing sides of the road. On one side there were men dressed in blue like their cars, on the other were men and women dressed in yellow and purple like their vehicles.

The ones in the neutral dark clothes that had crashed their car had better weapons, but they quickly retreated. The ones in the brighter colours seemed to only be interested in each other. At first glance, it almost seemed like the dark clothed men had led those in yellow and purple here in order to get them to fight with the ones in blue. But for what reason would they do that?

She circled overhead, thinking through her method of attack. Then on the wind, she heard police sirens and they were getting closer.

Both sides dived for cover as they began to open fire on each other. Shayera wondered if she should intervene or simply let them take each other out.

That decision became much easier when the police vans started to arrive, and the heavily armed and armoured SWAT began streaming out, along with riot police.

Both sides began to disperse, focusing on escaping the cops, rather than continuing their gun battle. That's when Shayera made her move. She folded her wings back and swooped in, focusing on a group of the blue-dressed men, who were running to a getaway car.

Before they knew what was happening, she had caved in the front of the car they'd hoped to escape in. She landed on its roof, mace firmly in hand.

"What's that!?" one of them shouted, as they all halted in their tracks.

"Just shoot it."

They raised their weapons and began to fire. Unfortunately for them, she had already launched herself into the air and had flown behind them.

She kicked one in the back of the head, knocking him down before she swung her uncharged mace at another's head. Even though she hadn't put much power into the swing, it was enough to knock him into the man standing next to him, sending both crashing to the ground. Bullets continued to fly from their automatic weapons as they fell, the thought of cushioning their fall was seemingly more important to them, than releasing the triggers.

The fourth decided not to take any chances of accidental being struck by his comrades, as the car and wall were chewed up by their uncontrolled gunfire. He also decided that he didn't want any further confrontation with their attacker, so he bolted.

After a moment on the ground, the bullets stopped coming. Shayera easily pulled their weapons free of their grips, before taking off into the sky in pursuit of the runner, the two rifles tucked under her left arm.

She discarded them onto the flat roof of a two-story building, before swooping in and knocking down the fourth blue man, taking his weapon off of him also.

After discarding the weapon in the same place, she smashed them with her mace. Taking to the skies once more, she saw that the police were not only pushing forward but had started to arrest those that had laid down their weapons. Others were trying to flee, but Shayera decided to put a stop to that.

Unfortunately, the police had also noticed her and calls for her to stop were issued out over a loud speaker. The Thanagarian chose to ignore it and continued her pursuit of the fleeing criminals in yellow and purple.

By now, helicopters were swirling around in the air. Spotlights kept falling on her, often obscuring her sight, which was annoying and frustrating.

As she swooped low, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A police officer had been separated from the others and three men had him surrounded in an area behind a cluster of abandoned buildings. They weren't shooting him, but rather beating him into submission.

Shayera felt disgusted. More at the cop for being overrun and allowing himself to get into such a predicament, than the criminals for dishing out the punishment. She put her feelings aside, as she altered her approach. She landed behind the three, who now had the officer on the floor, their fists and feet continuing to both punch and kick him.

After holstering her mace, she grabbed the one in the middle, by the back of his yellow t-shirt. She then literally threw him to the side, right into a pile of discarded garbage.

The other two rose up instantly. They had been expecting her to be another cop. They were sorely mistaken.

"What are you!?"

She punched the one who'd spoken in the face and he went down without even a whimper. It had been an instant knockout. The other one was a little more dexterous. He dodged her attack and delivered one of his own, which she easily blocked. Gripping his forearm, she twisted. There was a crack and he screamed out.

The one she had thrown to the side was back up on his feet at that point. He swung his pistol at her in order to club her with it, which meant that he was either out of bullets, or the guy didn't want to murder someone in front of a cop. She stepped back avoiding his swipes, before kicking his legs out from under him.

He cracked his head against the hard ground and cried out, holding the side of his face. The other one scrambled to his feet, raising his pistol at her.

Her mace was in her hand in an instant. She swung her weapon up under his right armpit, which held the gun and dislocated his shoulder. The gun flew out of his hand, but not before letting off a shot, which went wide. He cried out in pain, clutching his right shoulder.

By now, the cop had slowly risen to his feet. Shayera looked at the three before her. The one with the dislocated arm tried to flee, but she grabbed a-hold of his right arm, causing him to stop and cry out in pain.

Shayera turned around to face the cop, pulling the whimpering man around with her. "You have handcuffs?"

He stared at her for a few moments. "Yeah, a few," he said with a nod.

"Then stop being idle and use them."

"On them?" he asked.

She glared at him from behind her mask. "Do you have brain damage?"

Without further discussion, he cuffed the two that were unconscious, before slowly approaching the one Shayera had hold of.

That's when more cops came around the corner from behind the building. Without further thought, Shayera threw the man she was holding to the ground and took to the skies, avoiding probable arrest herself. Or rather attempted arrest. There was no way these incompetent idiots would be able to subdue her.

The law seemed to have the situation mostly in hand now and with more police arriving in the area, she decided it was time to for her to depart, lest they turn more of their attention on to her.

She focused on the helicopters for a moment. There were two. One had the markings of the police department, the other had the letters MCN strewn across it and someone with what looked like a large recording device on his shoulder, was sat there strapped in a seat, pointing it at her. She guessed MCN meant Midway City News.

Deciding to ignore them, she flew on, continuing north on her patrol route into the industrial district. It was then that she noticed that the police helicopter was following her, the news one not too far behind.

Shayera swept her wings back and dropped altitude, while also gaining speed. She went between two tall thin chimneys. Her lungs were assaulted by the toxic smoke and she began to cough.

"Disgusting," she muttered under her breath, once she had cleared her lungs.

Deciding that she didn't want to venture any further into the pollution ridden area of the city, she turned around and flew the opposite direction.

The helicopters banked as she went past them, on her flight back towards the inner city. It was her hope, that if she was fast enough and low enough, then she'd be able to lose them between the tall buildings.

The plan worked. By staying low and weaving in and out of the skyscrapers, she lost them. Trained as she was, she didn't head straight back to her safehouse. Instead, she headed west, before heading north. She then slowly turned in a giant arch, till she was heading south, back to Alison's house.

As she flew she had a feeling that something about that black car that led the yellow cars to Slumville was not quite right. Had they led them there on purpose? If so, for what reason? She hadn't seen where the men in the dark suits had gone, but they had left pretty quickly after crashing their vehicle.

Maybe she was seeing things that weren't there. It could have been as simple as those in the black car knew that those in yellow were enemies of those in blue and had simply led them there in order to evade them.

She put the thoughts out of her mind as she approached Hawk Valley.

* * *

Alison Kramer was exhausted. The long hours over the last few days was really starting to wear her down now, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

The main cause was the sheer amount of civilians who had been caught in the crossfire when the Bandino and Panessa families had had a shootout. Of course, officially it wasn't them as there was little to no evidence that those involved were associated with either.

Everyone knew they were members of those two crime organisations, but without the evidence, there was little they could do. Bandino had been on the watch-list for years, decades even. Before her husband died, he had been the boss, but now Janice Bandino was and she was far more discreet and careful. Or she had been before the Panessa family had turned up in the city.

That had changed everything. No longer was Bandino the obvious hierarchy of crime. After all, the two Slumville gangs had no way of competing. They just didn't have the resources.

One of Alison's many patients, a young woman of about eighteen, sat on the bed while Alison watched the nurse take her blood pressure. She didn't need to be here for that, but the woman was due to be released.

The nurse removed the band from the woman's arm and nodded to the doctor before moving off. Alison smiled.

"We've been in contact with your parents and informed them that you're being released," she told her.

The girl's eyes lit up. "I am."

"Yes, they said they should be here in the next thirty minutes."

"That's great."

"The nurse should be back shortly," Alison told her. "She'll see to everything."

Alison moved off out into the corridor and continued on to the next patient on her list, which was just down the corridor. As she went around a corner, she saw something unexpected. A nurse was lying on the floor. She rushed over and knelt down. The woman had a pulse but was unconscious. That meant one of two things could have happened. Either she tripped and fell, or.

Something cold and hard pressed against the back of her neck.

A voice spoke. "Alright, doc, no sudden movements."

Slowly she raised her hands.

"Stand up."

She did so, her legs shaking beneath her.

"Hold it!" another voice called out.

Suddenly she was grabbed roughly and spun around, the gun pressed hard against the side of her head. Stood in front was a cop, pointing his gun.

"Stay back, or she dies."

"Let the girl go."

Alison began to feel dizzy. The whole situation was surreal to her. Was this really happening? She felt numb, distant as if she was watching the events unfold on TV.

"Let the girl go," the cop repeated.

Alison gasped as the gun dug painfully into the side of her head. "I'll drop her if ya don't step back."

The cop flexed his trigger finger. "That's not an option. Give it up."

She watched as a man in a dark suit stepped up behind the cop and raised his pistol. He struck the officer hard in the back of his head, knocking the man to the floor unconscious.

The newcomer glared at the man holding her. "The cops 'ave been alerted, we're having to seal off the floor."

"Whatta we do?"

"We take these two and put 'em with the others an' hold 'em there till we find a way outta this mess."

Alison found herself being pushed forward. "Walk."

She did so, terrified about what was going to happen to her.

* * *

Not a moment after she returned had she turned on the television to see what the news had to say about tonight's gang war and her involvement.

Much to her surprise it didn't. Instead, it was saying something quite different.

" _Hostage situation at the Midway City General Hospital,"_ the man on the television said. _"We have received news that there has been an incident at the hospital. We're as of yet unsure what has occurred, but the police have surrounded the building."_

Shayera leant forwards on the sofa with interest. Alison worked at the hospital as a doctor. Or at least that's what the human woman had told her.

The news anchor continued. _"From what little information we have been able to gather, it appears that some hospital staff is being held hostage. Police are still dealing with a gang war that erupted between the east and west side of Slumville earlier this evening, which means police resources are stretched thin."_

Shayera turned off the television. The question was what did she do? There was no doubt that Alison had helped her when she could have just left her. She had allowed her to stay in her home when she could have demanded she left once she had awoken and especially after her initial hostility. Alison could have also called the authorities on her, but she hadn't.

Whether she liked it or not, she owed Alison a lot and if she was in danger, then she had to help her.

Shayera stood up and left the living room and headed to the base of the stairs.

"Lolita!" she called up loudly.

She waited while the young human stepped up to the landing at the top of the stairs.

"What?" the timid voice of the human girl asked.

"I need to head out, lock the back door behind me."

Lolita came down the stairs without saying anything. Shayera thought about telling her about what had happened at the hospital but decided against it.

The two of them moved over to the back door and Shayera stepped out into the night. With the door locked behind her, she took to the sky and headed towards the city.

If Alison was in danger then it was her duty to help her. She didn't like owing people anything and this was her chance to pay it back.


	12. HG:Y1:E02:Ch06

****Episode 02****

 ** **Earth****

 ** **Chapter Six****

The Midway City General Hospital was well lit and signposted, which was good news for Shayera.

There were police cars and vans surrounding the building, their lights flashing, causing everything around to be illuminated in near hypnotic flashes of red and blue.

Shayera landed nearby and tried to listen in, but the cops on the outside were being fairly quiet. What she did notice was that police in black had taken up positions across the street with long-barrelled rifles. It was her impression that they were taking up sniper locations and it seemed they were focusing on the upper floor.

The winged woman took to the dark sky and flew over to the roof of the hospital where she had seen a door. She forced it open and stepped inside, unsheathing her mace as she descended down the concrete steps.

She knew for certain that she had been seen by the police snipers on the roof, but that didn't concern her. What did was getting to Alison.

She stopped by a steel door and placed her head against it. She heard voices on the other side. She quieted her breath as she tried hard to ascertain what it was they were saying.

"-from this way," a male voice said. a

"I wouldn't put it past 'em. We offed some of Bandino's boys and we know some of 'em boys in blue are on her payroll."

"Ya know that fer sure?"

"I dunno, now stop yappin' an' get ready. They might be coming through that door at any minute."

Shayera waited, her mace raised. There was a good chance they had firearms, which meant when she busted down the door, she had to be quick otherwise, she could get shot. Now judging from the technology level, her guess was projectile weapons, not energy. This could prove an advantage.

She preferred to be able to see her enemy before striking. She also preferred to make sure they stayed down, as in dead, but she also knew that in order to gain the trust of these humans and not be seen as overtly dangerous, she would have to settle with simply knocking them unconscious.

"Ya sure ya heard something?" one of the voices asked after a moment.

"Sure."

"I'm gonna go take a look. Probably nothin'."

"Fine, go ahead. But if ya get jumped, it ain't on me."

Shayera stepped away from the door. In her mind, she formulated how she would quickly defeat both of them without drawing additional attention.

The door opened and before the man in the dark suit had even seen her, she had swung her mace at the back of his knees, taking his legs out from under him. He let out a short cry as he fell to the ground. The other went to raise his gun at her, but she was faster and struck him hard on the chin. His head snapped back and his eyes rolled in his head as he collapsed to the floor unconscious.

The other one was still conscious, but not for long. As he placed his hands on the floor to get back up, she quickly put her foot on the back of his head and smashed it into the floor, knocking him out also.

Without wasting time, she pulled the other one into the roof access stairwell and left them there, pulling the door shut behind her to conceal them from anyone who might wander this way. She didn't want her presence to be known. At least not yet.

There were two ways she could go. Left or right. She could hear voices from the right, so she decided to go that way, keeping her pace slow and remaining close to the wall. She came to a T-junction the hallway and she peered down it, seeing two armed men by a blockaded door. Above was a sign with an arrow that read: STAIRWELL.

Getting from where she was to where they were stood without being seen wasn't going to be possible. She would have to draw either one or both of them over to her.

Shayera glanced around and saw a trolley pushed up against the wall with all sorts of stuff on it.

She made her way over to it and casually pushed it over with a loud crash. She then slipped into the doorway of an open office and waited.

It didn' take more than a few seconds for the two to rush over.

"Someone's been here," a voice said.

"Whaddaya mean?" the other asked.

"Someone pushed that over, look."

Shayera watched through the gap in the door as the two stepped up to the fallen trolley. One of them looked down the hallway, then to his comrade.

"Sure it didn't just fall on its own?" he questioned.

"I'm tellin' ya, someone musta knocked it over. It didn't just fall over on its own, no way."

"Calm down, we ain't in Gotham no more. There ain't no bat comin' to get us. Whoever it was, ain't here no more."

As one of them stooped over to pick the trolley back up, she decided to attack. She flung the door open and ran forwards. The one that was still stood, turned around., his eyes going wide at the sight of her. He didn't even get a chance to warn the other one before her fist connected with his chin.

He flew back into the wall, which got the other one's attention. He stood up and swivelled around to see a fist fill his vision. He stumbled backwards, tumbling over the fallen trolley. The back of his head struck the wall, knocking him out cold.

The one she had struck first groaned as he lay there on the floor. She leant over as he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"What are ya?" he muttered before she knocked him unconscious. She dragged both of them into the office and closed the door shut behind her as she stepped back out into the hallway.

That was four out of an unknown number. It didn't help that she didn't know the layout of the hospital or even where to go. Her only option was to deal with every hostile she came up against, quickly and quietly.

Shayera continued to move cautiously down the corridor, keeping close to the walls. As she came to a corner, she stopped and peered around the corner. There was another guy stood by what appeared to be sliding doors. She still wasn't familiar enough with human design to know what it was, but it was possibly another point of entry, given that someone was standing guard.

He looked in her direction and she quickly snapped her head out of view.

"Who's there?" the man asked. "I saw you," he said. "Come on out."

Shayera gripped her mace in both hands. There was a chance she would be forced to fight. From what she saw, he had a rifle of some kind and if she was correct, then it was an assault weapon.

There was a loud click, possibly from a gun. "Ya better run, 'cause I'm comin' to get ya."

She heard footsteps approach, slowly getting closer and closer. Then she leapt out with a swing.

"Haaaaaa!" she cried out as her mace struck the gun, smashing it as it was ripped from his grip. She then headbutted him hard, causing him to stumble backwards, gripping his nose now blood nose. With a quick punch to the jaw, he fell backwards onto his back.

"You biuuuhhh." He didn't get to finish as she slammed the back of his head into the floor.

She left the unconscious man where he lay, then stopped as she heard a voice from up ahead.

"We know yer there," a male voice said from what she believed was the room on the left. "Show yerselves or we start shootin', startin' with the good doctor 'ere."

That confirmed it. They had hostages. The question was, how did she proceed from here? She could protect herself, she had no issue about that. Protecting other people, though? Like espionage, protecting and keeping people safe that weren't her had never really been a strong suit even though she had often ended up in that situation.

"I ain't messin'," the man said. "Right, put one in her brain."

Shayera couldn't waste any more time. She charged her mace and moved forward and moved around the room on the left where there were three men. Her mace left her hand and flew towards the one who was pointing the gun at someone in white who had their back to her. It struck him, knocking him over. The gun went off and she heard screams and shouts around her. She ignored it as she flew at the remaining two, planting both feet on the chest of the man on the left, sending him flying backwards into the wall.

The one on the right swung at her, but she deflected, sending her fist into his face. His feet left the floor and he flew backwards, over a hospital bed and crashed into a small cabinet.

Shayera stopped and looked around. All three men were down which was good. What wasn't good was that a woman in a white coat was holding her arm, clearly having been shot.

That's when she realised it was Alison.

She took a quick glance around at the former hostages. Three were in white, one was in light blue and the fourth was an unconscious police officer, in dark blue.

One of the other doctors rushed to grab some bandages from a first aid kit and wrapped it around Alison's arm, while the other three nurses stared open mouthed at Shayera.

"Thanks," Alison said to the other doctor, before looking over at her. "And thank you for helping us."

Shayera nodded as she grabbed her mace off of the floor and sheathed it. She then dragged the three gunmen into the corridor, before heading all the way back to the blockaded stairwell

As she cleared the boxes, she could see cops through the glass on the other side of the door. They looked at her in surprise, clearly not expecting her to be on the other side.

Then they started to push against the door, trying to force it open. At that point, Shayera decided it was probably time to leave.

She ran back to roof access, where she bolted up the stairs and out onto the roof. Within a few seconds, she was in the sky and heading north. The reason she headed north instead of south back to the house was simple. A police helicopter was immediately on her tail.

It wasn't that difficult to lose it, though. She was a lot faster and a lot more manoeuvrable. Soon she was heading south, back towards the valley.

* * *

Lolita hadn't known about what had occurred at the hospital She had been busy doing homework. Shayera hadn't told her either, that was something for Alison to do when she got home.

Shayera sat down and watched the aftermath of what had happened on the television. She recognised those being dragged out in handcuffs, most of them sporting rather nasty bruises on their faces and some broken noses. A few of the doctors, even Alison was interviewed about the incident, before the police intervened and led them out of the sight of the cameras.

Alison said nothing of importance and she gave very little away. She identified their "hero" as a masked and armoured winged woman that came in and took out the hostage takers with little effort.

That was definitely true. They didn't really put up much of a fight. If this was what this world had to offer, then this was going to be easier than she thought.

She wasn't just basing that on the criminals she had fought up until now, but also the police force. They couldn't even keep up with her in their aircraft.

The military was an entity she hadn't yet come into contact with, apart from checking out an airforce base. She wondered if they were more competent. They certainly would have more toys to play with, though from what she had seen, those toys were rather quaint.

Maybe she was being too harsh. These were primitives, after all, stuck on their tiny little planet.

The image on the screen changed back to the newsroom where there were a group of four, including the two news anchors, sat at the table.

With the remainder of the news broadcast being little more than wild speculation as to who or what she was, she turned it off and sat back, spreading her wings out on the couch.

She felt like she had accomplished something today. She had beaten up quite a lot of thugs, crooks and degenerates and she had barely broken out into a sweat. Well, apart from when she had worn that large coat when she had tried walking into the city. That was something she wasn't going to do ever again. It had been uncomfortable and had dragged on. Flying was a lot easier and faster.

Shayera stood up and headed into the foyer as she heard the front door open, then close. Stood there was Alison.

She grinned. "I have to thank you," Alison said. "You saved us."

Shayera shrugged. "I guess I did. How's the arm."

"Got a bandage on it. Just nicked me, it's nothing serious. The good thing is I have the next few days off to recover."

"I thought you said it wasn't that bad?"

Alison sighed as she rubbed her tired, worn eyes. "Physically it isn't."

Shayera understood. She had been given time off to deal with the emotional ramifications of being held as a hostage. This woman wasn't a combatant, she was a doctor.

Alison took a step towards Shayera. "Listen, after what you did today. You can stay for as long as you like."

"I thought I was already doing that?" Shayera questioned.

"You were, but I really mean it. You need help with anything and I'll do my best, I promise. You're a good person, you're exactly what this town needs. Crime's been on the up and you can help curb it."

"That's being presumptuous," Shayera pointed out.

"Maybe," Alison accepted. "But this place needs a hero. Metropolis has Superman, Gotham has Batman, Star City has Green Arrow, Central City has the Flash. I could go on, but I think you get the picture."

"I think I do," the Thanagarian said. "What you're saying is that the law enforcement and governments of this world are lacklustre and cannot control the crime that infests their cities and nations, so there need to be vigilantes to do it for them."

Alison awkwardly nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's what I mean. But not really. I mean, they do their best, y'know?"

"No, I don't know."

"I know it's asking a lot, but there're people in the city who are living in fear. They need hope and this city doesn't have that, it hasn't had it in a long time. Someone in the skies watching over them. It will give them that hope."

"You make me sound like some kind of champion of the people, but I'm not. I'm just a stranger on an alien world."

"You're a stranger that has the ability to make a difference. You're strong, you're fast, you can fly, you've helped people already. You have the makings of a superhero, you can be one."

Shayera stared at the woman. She had already decided that helping was a quick way to get into people's good graces and therefore earn the trust of the people, but doing it to actually help people hadn't really crossed her mind. It was a means to an end, but maybe it could be more?

She shook the thought from her head. She had a mission to complete and giving the people of this city hope wasn't one of them.

"I'll think about it," Shayera said.

"That's all I ask, thank you." Alison headed for the stairs. "I'm tired, I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Shayera nodded. "Tomorrow," she repeated.

She watched as the human woman made her way up the stairs and out of sight.

There was a lot to think about, but she couldn't lose sight as to why she was here. It would be a fine balance and she was smart. She would be able to figure it out.

Then again her mission was so obtuse that she wasn't sure how to complete it. She had to keep reminding herself of the very simple objectives which were:

One: To find out Earth's defences and military capabilities, which by her first impression were excruciatingly primitive.

Two: To earn the trust of the people, which being a hero would certainly accomplish.

Three: To help prepare them for a potential Gordanian invasion without revealing her true reason for being here. This primitive world was the type of planet the Gordanians loved. Worlds that hadn't yet developed space flight were easy pickings when it came to stealing resources and taking slaves. It was a sad truth, but enslavement was the Gordanians number one trade. It was how they funded their war machine and it was the reason they needed to be destroyed.

With that final thought, Lieutenant Shayera Hol made her way upstairs and went to bed for the night. She wasn't sure what the future would bring and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. For now, she would take it day by day.

That's all she could do.


End file.
